Camp Us
by Shade's Ninde
Summary: College AU - Artemis has some interesting hallmates. Team hijinks, multiple pairings, featuring RA!RA and his hat-tossing skills. T for language and occasional questionable content. Chapter Nine: u grad, bro?
1. Move In Day

I don't own Young Justice. Pairings are mostly canon (Supermartian and eventual Spitfire a la the show itself), but with exceptions, because let's be real, _I'm_ writing this and I have no self-control.

This idea came from the YJAM; I claim only the execution. :)

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><p><strong>Camp Us<strong>

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><p>No fewer than fourteen and a half people helped Artemis move in, and she hadn't known one of them the day before.<p>

First was the pretty redhead who took one look at her mountain of boxes and bags and the three flights of stairs between her and her destination and absolutely forbade her to carry it all up by herself.

"Sweetie, it'll take you all day," she said, and Artemis couldn't really argue – it wasn't that she wasn't strong enough, just that she could only take so much at a time, and well, there was a lot. "Let my boys help you. They've got horrible hero complexes, anyway. I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it."

That proved half true. The woman – Iris – introduced Artemis to her husband and her nephew, the first of whom was indeed more than happy to grab some of the heavier bags and head right up the stairs with remarkable speed. On the other hand, the nephew, a lanky kid with his aunt's red hair but a few more freckles, looked a bit less thrilled.

"My roommate's in the middle of hacking the orientation video," he objected, but at a stern look from his aunt, he picked up one of Artemis's bags and hurried up the stairs without so much as a "where do you live?"

Fortunately, as it turned out, she lived in the room next to his, in an awkward windowless nook of the third-floor corridor of Mountain Hall. The redhead – Wally – hadn't been joking about his roommate, who was indeed sitting on his bed and reprogramming the official college webpage to play a certain Rick Astley music video instead of the standard Beatus Portum University orientation clip, and laughing uncontrollably as he did so. Rolling her eyes, Artemis continued past their room to dump her stuff in front of door B07, fished her room key out of her pocket, and let herself into her new home.

It was crowded. This had less to do with the size of the room and more to do with the fact that it was full of chattering, giggling, squealing red-haired girls, the youngest of whom looked about ten and the oldest of whom turned out to be Artemis's roommate, Megan.

"Sorry about my sisters!" she said brightly as she pushed her way to the entrance, and missed the hand Artemis had put out for a handshake, throwing her arms around her in an alarmingly enthusiastic hug instead. _Awkward._

"Do you mind if I, um, start moving my stuff in?" Artemis asked as Megan released her, looking around at the room and wondering if she could actually fit anything in with this many people. _Six sisters? _Artemis could barely handle one. And Megan's were so…nice to each other. The whole situation felt alien.

"Of course not! We can help you," Megan offered. "I'm pretty much set up. I hope you don't mind, I took the bed next to the air conditioner. I'm not so good with the heat."

"Yeah, that's uh, that's fine," Artemis said, and before she could so much as blink, or say "don't open that bag, my vibrator's in there," Megan's sisters had flooded out into the hallway and her stuff was practically flying itself into the room.

Adjusting the height of the bed proved beyond their collective expertise, though; Artemis wanted to loft it high enough to create some storage space beneath, but the mechanism was irritatingly complicated and seemed to require a level of brute strength that she just didn't possess, plus it didn't help that Megan's younger sisters were just standing there watching her wrestle with it. Just as she was about to inadvertently teach the gathered impressionables a new word or two, a new face appeared in the doorway, a tall, solemn-faced boy with dark skin, light eyes and some seriously inked arms.

"I can do it, if you would like," he offered.

Artemis wiped a bead of sweat from her brow.

"If it's not too much trouble," she said, grimacing as she extracted her other hand from the pinching metal. Why the hell was this so difficult?

The newcomer moved into the room with a deferential nod to Megan and her sisters, who had returned to wallpapering her side of the room with posters from every TV show Artemis had ever heard of. As he crouched down to loosen some contraption Artemis hadn't even seen, he spoke again.

"My name is Kaldur'ahm," he said. "I believe we are neighbors. I live across the corridor."

"Gotcha," Artemis nodded, then bit her lip – what had he just said? "Um, could you say your name again?"

He chuckled, straightening out and pulling the bed up several inches.

"Just call me Kaldur. Is this an acceptable height?"

"Yeah, it's great, thanks," she replied, and he bent once more to secure it. "I'm Artemis, by the way."

He rose and extended a hand to her, which she shook, wishing she weren't quite so sweaty and gross at the moment. Just then, another boy appeared in the door, a heavy box under one arm, and she could practically feel Megan and all her sisters' attention shift, as if they had some kind of familial telepathy that had alerted them all to the presence of Serious Eye Candy. The new kid pretty much screamed football team, with those broad shoulders and that old-school handsome face; he looked like he'd walked right out of some cheesy 1940's superhero comic, complete with introductory chivalry:

"This your box?" he asked Artemis, hefting it up. "It was out on the lawn. Wally's mom said it was yours."

"Oh," Artemis said, recognizing it. "Shit. Yes. Augh, sorry Megan – "

Megan's sisters had looked startled at her curse.

"Megan, Artemis, this is Conner," said Kaldur, breaking the brief, awkward silence. "My roommate."

"Nice to meet you," Conner grunted, setting Artemis's box down in the entryway and looking around the room. "Uh. Later."

And he disappeared, though not without a brief pause as his eyes met Megan's and she blushed furiously. Okay, so the complete lack of social grace was maybe not so 1940's comics, but at least he looked the part.

Artemis spent the next few hours settling in – unpacking the things she'd managed to convince Megan's younger sisters to leave alone, putting up her only decorations (an Alice in Wonderland poster and a photo of her family, the scissor marks barely noticeable along the edge where her dad should have been), making her bed and finally, finally getting a shower. She was going to have to get used to communal bathrooms, since their two-shower, two-toilet operation was apparently going to be shared by all four rooms in their nook, which Wally and Dick (the hacking kid) had apparently dubbed The Cave. Who lived in the fourth, she still wasn't sure – the door had been shut since they'd showed up.

Shortly after her shower, an elderly gentleman with the classiest British accent Artemis had ever heard appeared in their hallway with – no joke – a silver platter of fresh-baked cookies and just-squeezed lemonade.

"Drink up, Master Richard," he told hacker boy, who had moved on to digitally inserting himself into all the orientation slideshow photos. "I don't want to have to explain to Master Bruce how you collapsed due to heat exhaustion. And consider using a better photo of yourself. If you plan to make a name for yourself on the first day, you may as well do it looking a little less scruffy."

Dick groaned and tried to push away the comb that the older gentleman had aimed for his hair, but no one missed the affectionate grin on his face as he took a cookie.

This was when Artemis realized that Dick-from-next-door was actually Dick Grayson, ward of the man for whom her scholarship was named. (Bruce Wayne was the "half" on Artemis's list of fourteen and a half move-in helpers – since he'd paid for her to be here in the first place, she had to count him somehow, though he was apparently off in trustee meetings or being mobbed by the orientation photographers for most of the day.)

In the late afternoon, she found herself sitting out in the hallway with Conner and Kaldur, who like her didn't have any family to be saying goodbye to; Kaldur had transferred from some college near Atlanta and had come by himself, apparently, and Conner just muttered something vague about not having a family that no one seemed willing to ask about. Deciding not to probe into that particular comment (it wasn't like she wanted to talk about her family life, either), Artemis made small talk with the two while their three hallmates bid varyingly tearful goodbye to their families.

"What do you plan to study?" Kaldur asked, interrupting the sound of Megan's many happily crying sisters.

"Not totally sure," said Artemis, hugging her knees to her chest. "Pre-law, definitely, but not sure if I'm going political science or psych just yet. We'll see what classes I get into. You?"

"I would like to continue my studies in Greek," Kaldur replied. "So, perhaps Classics."

They turned to Conner, who was watching Barry and Iris as they caught Wally up in a tight, tight hug. He started a little as he noticed Artemis' and Kaldur's expectant looks, then muttered something that may or may not have been "art." Artemis had to raise an eyebrow at that.

By the time the six of them were walking back from dinner in the cafeteria, Artemis was starting to get a feel for her new hallmates.

Megan was sweet, if a touch oblivious – Wally had been unashamedly hitting on her for the duration of dinner, and she hadn't even noticed, or else was too polite to call him out on it, though Dick and Artemis had done so freely. Artemis felt reasonably confident they would be good roommates, if she could remember to tone down her language and save the cynicism for special occasions. Frankly, it would be a nice change of pace to live with someone without any diagnosable neuroses.

Conner was…well, Conner. Artemis had seen her fair share of the brooding type, but this kid took it to a new level, a borderline hilarious level – his participation in their dinner conversation had been limited to grunts, shrugs and the occasional three-word phrase. Despite the enormous temptation, she refrained from teasing him, mostly because she could tell Megan was already smitten, and sweet and sour was a workable combination, if a bit trite.

Kaldur was the oldest of them, and it showed. She wasn't sure how a transfer sophomore had ended up rooming with a bunch of first-years, but to his credit, he seemed not to mind. He had a knack for steering the conversation clear of what seemed like inevitable disaster, much to Dick's disappointment.

Dick himself was hard to read. It was difficult to tell from one moment to the next if he was joking or serious, especially because he just always seemed to be grinning that same irritating grin no matter the situation, then there was the problem where he looked way too young to be in college, though Artemis had heard something about a computer science-Spanish-Chinese triple major, which was just, well, ridiculous. Finally, he seemed to have an endless supply of random talents – not only could he hack a website or a database with just his phone, he could keep a hacky sack in the air like nobody's business, execute random triple cartwheels, and solve a Rubik's Cube in under thirty seconds. He'd also worked some magic on her ancient laptop and gotten her hooked up to the school network in a matter of minutes. She was going to have to get to know this kid better.

Wally…Wally.

Wally was going to be a challenge. She had no idea why, but he seemed to have a chip in his shoulder just for her, and it was only the first day. Maybe it was that she'd so bluntly pointed out his cheeseball lines in front of Megan, or maybe he just didn't like her face, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to go out of her way to make him like her. If he wanted a little ice on the hall, she was more than ready to deliver. Screw the haters and all that – Artemis didn't have time for middle school grudges.

The six of them spent the evening talking basic stuff – hometowns, hobbies, all the normal stuff college freshmen use to skate through those first awkward social interactions, then gathered for the last item of the day, a mandatory hall meeting. Apparently Dick's presence on their hall meant that the six of them had an RA to themselves, which in Artemis's eyes was a pretty raw deal – she hoped their super-specially-designated RA would at least be chill, or it was going to be a long year without any parties, loud music or booze…

Their RA was not chill.

"All right, freshmeat," he practically growled as he stared down at them, arms crossed over his chest, face frozen in what looked like a permanent scowl. "Here's the deal. I'm a senior. Do you know what that means? It means thesis. It means I'm a very busy guy and I'm not putting up with any shenanigans from a few snot-nosed first-years, so listen up. There are a few ground rules this side of Mountain Hall.

"If I can hear your music from my room, it's too loud. If anyone can hear your music during quiet hours, it's too loud, and I'll slap you a noise violation faster than you can say 'but everyone loves Nickelback, Roy.'"

Artemis snorted.

"Don't have sex in the communal bathroom, or I _will _tape your gross little noises and broadcast the remix on campus radio," the RA – Roy – continued. "Resolve your roommate disputes yourself. There isn't extra housing, so learn to live with each other or get an apartment, just don't come whining to me about who set whose bed on fire. I don't care. That's gonna be our theme for the year, all right? I don't care."

The six of them nodded obediently; Artemis and Dick were clearly trying not to laugh, while Megan looked increasingly mortified.

"Let's see, what am I forgetting?" Roy asked, tapping his fingers against his (rather sizeable) bicep. "If you're gonna vomit, do it in the bathroom and clean it up yourself. That shit's biohazard. Use a condom – I don't want any more kids on this hall, Boy Wonder here is plenty – and don't lock yourself out. Every time I have to unlock your door for you, I will take a compromising picture of you, either with a bong, a dead hooker or a Twilight DVD, and mail it to your parents. Is that clear?"

"I don't have parents," said Conner.

"My parents wouldn't care," Artemis added.

"My parents wouldn't be surprised," muttered Wally.

"My parents cannot receive mail," Kaldur frowned.

"My parents would never believe I'd do any of those things," M'gann pointed out.

"My dad is Bruce Wayne."

Everyone looked over at Dick, who just raised an eyebrow, and the rest of them shrugged – the kid had a point.

Their RA, meanwhile, looked like he was about to blow his top. But instead of yelling at them, which he looked like he was about to do, after a moment of fuming he just grabbed his baseball cap and threw it to the floor with a loud curse. Without another word, he turned and stormed back into his room, the door slamming behind him and rattling on its hinges.

"Meeting adjourned?" Dick grinned, and everyone had to laugh.

(Roy's hat turned up the next morning at the top of the oak outside Wally and Dick's window, like a sporty star on an out-of-season Christmas tree. No one claimed responsibility, because no one needed to ask. It would stay there all year.)

Come one o'clock, even Wally wasn't bothering to hide his yawns anymore, and Kaldur (whom Artemis could already tell was going to be the Responsible One in their developing gang) suggested it might be time to go to bed, considering they had registration in the morning.

They crowded into the bathroom to brush their teeth, trying to ignore the irritating sound of Dick's toothbrush as it cycled through two minutes' worth of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song, then one by one, everyone said their goodnights drifted off to their own rooms.

As she pulled the sheets up over herself (not the blankets – it was too hot for that), Artemis rolled over onto her side and reached out to hit the light with a glance over at her new roommate.

"Good night," she said quietly, unsure if Megan was even still awake; the other girl already looked so peaceful. But at the sound of Artemis's voice, she opened her eyes and smiled sleepily, pulling her stuffed animal closer (what had Wally called it? a Tribble?).

"Good night," said Megan with a yawn. "See you in the morning."

Artemis turned out the lights and settled down into bed, discreetly pulling her stuffed cat out of its hiding space beneath the covers (no one needed to know about Cheshire).

As she drifted off to sleep, she searched idly for a word to sum up these people, who already felt like something of a family, including the annoying siblings you couldn't stand, and the ones you knew you'd never really understand. Where did she start – eccentric? annoying? eclectic? awesome?

But in the end, no one word did them justice.


	2. Study Buddies

October came, and Artemis was hard-pressed to remember a time when she _wasn't _in college. Home had become a pleasantly distant thing, and except for the rare e-mail from her mother inquiring after her well-being, she was rarely reminded that she hadn't actually lived in the Cave all her life, or that this little band of crazy people wasn't actually her family. As the weeks had worn on they'd started their own classes and sports and clubs and whatnot, and found other people to hang out with on occasion, but the six of them kept coming back to each other in the end, and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Not that everything was sunshine and rainbows, of course. Wally was still obnoxious, still disliked her for no apparent reason, and still hit on Megan every chance he got, despite the fact that she and Conner had been an item since about Tuesday of week two, surprising absolutely no one. That wasn't really a problem for Artemis, in and of itself – yeah, Conner was cute, but after some rough times towards the end of high school she was ready to give the whole dating thing a rest, and if it made Megan happy, she wasn't going to get in the way.

On the other hand, the downside of that delightful, young, budding romance was that Artemis found herself out of a room for a few hours almost every day, and occasionally even overnight. Apparently it was a rule that every person's first-year college experience had to include That Couple, the two people who had clearly not dated before college and who, upon arriving and obtaining a significant other, had absolutely no sense of how much time it was appropriate to spend together, or when to stop posting sickly sweet things on each other's Facebooks, or what level of PDA was acceptable (none, in Artemis's book).

In the Cave, Megan and Conner were That Couple.

It got to the point where Artemis actually kept a spare toothbrush in Kaldur's room just in case she got another one of those apologetic texts, _could i have the room 2nite? u can say no…, _usually with lots of hearts and smiley never did say no, though, because otherwise Megan was a perfect roommate – tidy, friendly and generous with the many care packages her sisters sent her – and because she did enjoy spending time with Kaldur, who found himself without a roommate more often than not, and seemed to appreciate the company.

Then, of course, there was the work. Artemis had never exactly been a slacker in high school, but there had at least been times when she'd been able to skate by on smarts and a good reputation. She hadn't been valedictorian but she'd been close, and it wasn't until she was sharing classes with people like Dick (expletive) Grayson that she realized she was _not _going to be top of the heap at Beatus Portum, and that actual work was going to be required to get through. Soon, she had become intimately familiar with the eternal trichotomy of college: given sleep, study and a social life, you got to pick two.

One Tuesday evening, Artemis wandered into the hallway to find it essentially empty. This wasn't too surprising; Conner had football practice (she'd called that one), Megan had cheerleading, and Wally usually took this time to get in some extra laps for track (for a skinny kid, he was pretty damn fast). Kaldur was probably at work – he had a work-study in the library archives – and Dick…well, Artemis had given up trying to predict when and where he'd turn up. Every time she thought she had his schedule figured out, he ruined it by showing up someplace she'd thought he had absolutely no business being.

She had just let herself into her room and dug her French textbook out of her backpack when she heard a door open out in the hallway and got up to investigate – misery loved company, after all, and she had a long night of study ahead of her. But it was Roy's door she had heard, not any of her friends', and before she could awkwardly slink back into her room and pretend she hadn't seen anything, the tall blonde in the RA's doorway had turned, and Artemis was making awkward eye contact that she didn't feel she could break without being incredibly rude.

"Uh, hi," she said, getting the sense that she had just walked in on the end of an important conversation; Roy looked unendingly uncomfortable, and not just in his usual grumpypants way. "Sorry, I was just, um…"

"It's fine," the woman smiled, and okay damn that was a gorgeous smile. She couldn't have been a student – she was too well-dressed (snazzy leather jacket, black shirt, probably designer, snug dark jeans), and looked a little too old for it, but she clearly knew Roy, as the two had been discussing something in low voices when Artemis had popped her head into the hallway. "Are you one of Roy's residents?"

"Yeah," said Artemis, stepping out into the corridor. "I'm Artemis."

"Nice to meet you, Artemis," said the woman, holding out her hand, which Artemis shook. "I'm assuming you already know who I am."

Awkward. Artemis's eyes flicked to Roy, who was no help at all.

The woman looked back to the increasingly-cross-looking RA, arching one eyebrow.

"Isn't it part of your job to tell them about these things?"

"Come on, that stuff is all on the website," Roy grumbled, folding his arms over his chest defensively. "They have computers, they can look it up."

"Honestly," the blonde sighed, though like Artemis, she seemed more amused by his demeanor than annoyed by his negligence. She turned back, hands on her hips. "Well since Mr. Harper here seems to be lying down on the job, I'll have to introduce myself. I'm Dinah Lance, your first-year guidance counselor. Well, technically everyone's first-year guidance counselor. But my office happens to be in this building, so we'll say I'm especially yours. How does that sound?"

"Er. Great," said Artemis, wondering if they were supposed to shake hands again or not.

"If you need anything, or if you know anyone who needs anything, come see me, all right?" Dinah told her. "You can make an appointment, or you can just come downstairs and knock. My door's usually open."

"Will do," said Artemis, with absolutely zero intent ever to do so. She'd seen a few "guidance counselors" in her time and had no desire to repeat the experience. Her life wasn't like everyone else's – she didn't want or need some set of cookie-cutter solutions to her problems, and besides, things were going great now. Mostly.

"Well, I'd better get going," said Dinah, as if sensing the sudden coolness in the room. "It was nice to meet you, Artemis. Roy, keep me updated. If you don't, I know where you live. And how to disable your swipe access to any and every building on campus."

"You _so_ don't have that authority," Roy objected, but Dinah just smiled as she turned the corner and disappeared, calling out,

"No, but Ollie does!"

Artemis turned to Roy, a smirk playing on her lips as the sound of Dinah's heels clicking in the echoey stairwell faded.

"Soooo," she said, leaning up against the wall and waggling her eyebrows. "An older woman. Niiiice."

"Can it, squirt," he snapped, turning back towards his room. "She's a family friend."

"And I'm sure _all_ your thoughts about her are totally 'family friendly,'" Artemis teased – riling him up was so easy, and so entertaining – but she found the door slammed in her face a second later, as Roy muttered something that sounded like "dad's girlfriend."

Suddenly, a new voice sounded in the hallway.

"Are you causing trouble again?"

Artemis turned to see Kaldur standing at the top of the stairs, looking vaguely amused as he fished his room key out of his pocket.

"Always," she smirked back. "How was work?"

"Quiet," replied Kaldur, unlocking his door and dropping his backpack inside. "I believe the internet has rendered my job essentially obsolete. Mostly, I am paid to do my homework."

"And you're complaining?"

"No," he said. "Not at all. It allows me more time for leisure reading."

Artemis raised an eyebrow.

"Anyone ever told you you're really weird?"

"I believe Wally did just yesterday."

"Well, Wally got something right, for once."

Kaldur chuckled and flicked on the light in his room, stepping inside but leaving the door open in implicit invitation. Doubling back to get her French workbook, Artemis followed him in, plopping down on the beanbag in the corner, the one she'd moved from her room when she'd realized just how much time she would be spending in there – otherwise, the room was neat, clean and sparsely decorated. Kaldur had a few framed photos on his desk, but Conner had actually come in with nothing – the only decoration on his side of the room was a Blade Runner poster that Wally had given to him when he just "couldn't take the emptiness anymore" (Artemis wasn't sure Conner had ever even seen the movie, but apparently that was beside the point).

"Have you spoken to Megan and Conner about giving you greater advance notice of their…intentions?" Kaldur asked, tactful as ever as he ran a hand over his well-stocked bookcase, seeking a particular title.

"Not yet," said Artemis. "Not really a conversation I'm looking forward to having, to be honest."

"I can imagine."

"I'd actually take more sexiling over all the mushy PDA stuff any day."

Kaldur nodded idly and took a seat on his bed, opening his book.

"They do seem very happy together," he remarked.

Artemis snorted.

"That's one way of putting it."

"Are you envious?"

"What?" Artemis asked in surprise, dropping her pencil. "Of Megan?"

He shrugged.

"Or Conner."

"Dude, it's not like that," she said, laughing. "I'm happy for them, I could just do without the daily dose of sunshine and rainbows and neverending affection, you know?"

"You have a strange aversion to things most people would consider pleasant."

"And you read books in your spare time."

Kaldur shrugged.

"Where I come from, that is not so unusual."

"Oops, culturally insensitive," said Artemis, raising her hands defensively. "Sorry."

"It is fine," Kaldur assured her with an amused smile.

"Anyway," Artemis yawned. "While we're talking about people behind their backs, you got your eye on anyone yet?"

"Pardon?"

"Do you like someone?" she asked, going for the more blunt approach.

"Here at University?"

"Anywhere. Are you stalling?"

"No, I simply want to make sure I understand your question. And…yes."

"Yeah?" Artemis smirked, looking over at him. "Spill it."

"We studied together in Atlanta, before I transferred. Her name is Tula," he said with a small smile, while his gaze turned to one of the photos on his desk, across the room.

"Long-distance thing, then?" asked Artemis, trying to conceal her surprise – she'd actually assumed Kaldur was gay, if only because he hadn't checked her out upon first meet, which all guys (even the nice ones) seemed to do, and because he was a little too…well, well-groomed to be straight. But okay, whatever, straight Kaldur was fine too. She just hoped he didn't think it was weird that she spent all her time in his room…

"Not exactly," he said, reminding her that she'd asked a question. "But we have always had…an understanding. When I have completed my studies and returned home, I believe it will become something more."

Artemis stood up and walked across to his desk to take a look at the picture.

"This one?"

Kaldur murmured an affirmation. There were three of them in the picture, the girl in the middle with her arm around the other two – Kaldur to her right, a subtle smile on his face, and a black-haired boy with a wide grin to her left.

"She's cute," Artemis conceded, setting the frame back down. "Who's the other guy?"

"That is Garth," replied Kaldur. "The three of us have been close friends since preparatory school."

"Gotcha. He's cute too."

Artemis smirked and leaned back against the side of Kaldur's desk, arms folded over her chest, trying to think of more ways to avoid doing her homework.

"Do you…have your eye on someone?" he asked, reusing her own words.

"Not really," she said, making a face. "Enjoying the single life for a little while. I could use a break, anyway."

Kaldur tapped his fingers against his book thoughtfully, as if considering whether or not to say something.

"Wally seems to have…taken an interest in you," he remarked after a moment.

"What?" Artemis spluttered. "No way. He hates me."

"Do you think so?"

"Dude, he goes out of his way to make my life miserable," Artemis pointed out. "Just yesterday he drew a picture of me as a flesh-eating bacterium on my whiteboard and labeled it _necrotizing fasciitis artimus_."

"An effort he would not have made for just anyone," Kaldur countered.

"That's just – " Artemis began, but a loud noise from the hallway cut her off; she knocked over the picture frame on the desk in surprise, but caught it before it could hit the desk, thankfully. Righting it, she stuck her head into the hallway to get a faceful of glitter – Dick had set off some kind of confetti bomb in the corridor.

"I'm back," he announced as the (sparkly, brightly colored) dust settled.

Artemis stared.

"Clearly," she remarked, blowing some shredded paper off her upper lip. "Is there a reason for the grand entrance?"

"Of course," he grinned, and handed her a slip of paper.

It was an invitation. To a study party. In the lounge. The same study party they had at least once a week, except now apparently it merited embossed invitations on fine, heavy paper, with the official college seal…

"Doesn't the crew from next door usually have the common room on Tuesday nights?" she asked skeptically.

"They won't tonight," Dick replied with a wink. "I took out some insurance."

* * *

><p>Dick's "insurance" turned out to be a series of notices he'd put up in the common room, along with the strips of red and white medical tape with which he'd marked the place off from the rest of the hallway. Artemis pulled one of the fliers off the wall and read it as the gang filed in, lugging computers, textbooks and binders with them.<p>

_BEATUS PORTUM HEALTH SERVICES ALERT_, it read in official-looking typeface. _THIS ZONE HAS BEEN PLACED IN TEMPORARY QUARANTINE DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF TRACE AMOUNTS OF THE SMYLEX TOXIN. PLEASE TAKE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS. THIS INCLUDES…_

And the usual health services advice followed: wash your hands, avoid contact with infected persons, don't prepare your own food if sick, etc.

"Genius," Wally grinned as he plopped down into one of the big, comfy armchairs that were the room's main appeal. "Where'd you get the official college letterhead?"

"I have my ways," replied Dick, waggling his eyebrows. "Anyway, what's on everyone's agenda tonight?"

"Lit," Conner grunted as he shrugged off his backpack. "Five-page paper on the symbolism of animals in fairy tales."

"Not bad, not bad," Dick nodded. "Due when?"

"Yesterday."

"Okay, so kind of bad."

Conner mumbled something that sounded like 'busy with practice' that everyone but Wally took to mean 'busy with Megan.'

"I've got Biology," M'gann sighed as she dropped a tall stack of textbooks on the table. "My first midterm is Friday and I don't know how I'll ever be ready in time."

Just as Artemis opened her mouth to offer a helpful suggestion about that, Wally (Mr. Fastest Mouth in the World) beat her to it.

"Biology?" he grinned, folding his arms behind his head and leaning back in the chair. "You know I'm your man there, babe. What's the topic?"

"Artemis," Dick cut in helpfully. "What've you got tonight?"

"French, and music theory," said Artemis, hefting her backpack up onto the long conference table. "Not to mention my poli-sci quiz day after tomorrow."

"I can help you study for poli-sci," offered Megan. "I took an equivalent course in high school, so I should understand most of what you're doing."

Artemis agreed, saying she'd try and polish off the turn-in assignments first, and everyone settled in to work, except Kaldur, who always seemed to have his homework done ahead of anyone else. He set about brewing a pot of coffee for the rest of them and eventually settled into a comfy chair to continue his reading.

It was an interesting study group. Since they'd established the tradition in those first few weeks, the personalities had come out of the cracks; they were all first-years, shopping around for courses a little bit, so their subjects were eclectic and only infrequently overlapped, but all the same, everyone had their strengths.

Megan was a good student a quick learner; she didn't always understand things on the first go, but she was willing to let people explain things to her, unlike Conner, who grumpily refused help except from Megan, or unless it came cleverly disguised as not-help (a skill only Kaldur had perfected).

Conner was also, it seemed, an endless source of completely useless information – Artemis guessed he must have done trivia team or something in high school, because he knew the most surprising things about the most random crap, yet at times barely seemed capable of stringing two sentences together in a civil conversation.

Kaldur was the most focused among them, the kind of guy who got up at six in the morning to go for a swim every day, rain or shine. He didn't have a Facebook, which was probably why he polished off his schoolwork so much more efficiently than the rest of them, but whether or not he actually had work to do, he showed up to their study parties to offer moral support, usually with coffee and weird seaweed snacks that everyone else pretended to like.

Wally was infuriatingly good at all the hard sciences, and he knew it; he was taking Advanced Biology, Chemistry and Intro to Astrophysics all at once, and apparently setting the curve in all three if his word was to be taken. He spent a lot of their sessions browsing science journals on the internet and working himself into fevered excitements about some experiment or another that he planned to try once he earned keys to the more advanced department labs, then abruptly remembering his actual homework and sinking into lethargic acceptance.

But while Wally might have been hot stuff in the sciences, Dick set the curve in pretty much anything he took. Given that Artemis was taking level one Music Theory with him, she didn't really appreciate that, but he was good about pulling her up to his level when a concept didn't come naturally, and he was a fun study partner, in any case. He had a habit of asking questions that were surprisingly stupid for someone as smart as him, though, questions that left everyone wondering whether to laugh, or if that would hurt his feelings. But Megan (generally speaking the most kind of the gang) answered them every time, and every so often Artemis thought she saw Dick stifle a giggle…

A few hours into their academic marathon, the initial energy was lagging, and everyone felt it. Megan was yawning and leaning heavily on Conner's shoulder as she flipped back and forth between the same two pages of her Biology textbook; Conner was staring off into space as he drummed his fingers against his keyboard, his essay only half-finished. Wally had disappeared into the Scientific American yet again, Kaldur was nodding off in his chair, Dick was muttering curses at the faulty code whose bug he apparently could not find, and Artemis was trying to work up an ounce of a shit to give about the voice-leading worksheet she had yet to start.

"All right," Dick said at last, shutting his laptop lid. "Time for a break."

"A snack break?" asked Wally hopefully.

"No. Better. Be right back."

And he disappeared, as he was wont to do, back into the Cave.

"Kaldur, you know you can go to bed, right?" Conner asked, leaning back in his chair so he could prod his roommate awake. Kaldur muttered some sort of unnecessary apology and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"So who understands secondary dominant chords?" Artemis asked meekly.

"Me, but you know who understands it better?" Dick grinned from behind her – he'd returned, with an armful of speakers and other audio equipment, which he was busy plugging into the wall.

"Schubert?" Artemis guessed. "Professor N.P. Harris?"

Dick smirked, stepping back.

"The King of Pop."

And suddenly, sound flooded the room, rattling the furniture and nearly startling Wally out of his chair (instead, he just knocked his binder off the armrest, sending a flurry of papers floating to the ground). Given that it was indeed close to midnight, and the catchniess of the beat was undeniable, Artemis gladly cast her homework aside and on impulse, jumped up on the table.

A dance party ensued. Artemis and Dick dragged a shrieking Megan up onto the table with them, and Wally, not wanting to be left out, soon leapt up to join; all bets were off as Conner lunged to snatch his computer away from their stomping feet and Artemis's French textbook went sailing into the corner, victim to the chaos.

Laughing uncontrollably, Artemis let Dick spin her around and execute a stylish dip, despite the fact that he was a good two inches shorter than her. Conner made a vague noise of disappreciation as her ponytail smacked him in the face on the way back up, but that was apparently not enough to convince him to join. It took a well-placed pouty face from Megan for him to finally give in, and soon the cheerleader had jumped down to dance with him, leaving Artemis to get her groove on between Dick and Wally while Kaldur watched them all and shook his head in fond confusion.

Then somewhere between Wally's butchered attempt at a moonwalk and Artemis's more successful crotchgrab, the music stopped, the whine of the speakers dropping down into abrupt silence.

"What. Is. This. Fuckery?"

They all looked around to face the new voice. Roy stood in the entryway in track pants and a beanie, looking bleary-eyed and distinctly _not pleased. _

"Um," said Artemis, freezing on the tabletop.

"Study break?" offered Wally feebly.

"It's quiet hours, junior jerkwads," Roy snapped back. "And don't you know you're studying in a biohazard?"

He snatched one of Dick's "health notices" off the wall and threw it at them, which went about as well as throwing uncrumpled paper usually does; it floated to the ground indifferently several feet short of them.

"Um, about that..."

"Can it, short stuff," Roy interrupted, cutting Dick off. "If you all wanna get yourself sick, knock yourself out, just do it quietly. Some of us have work to do. _Real_ work. _Upperclassman_ work."

"Dude, I know the Call of Duty soundtrack when I hear it," muttered Wally.

"And I know the sound of someone getting owned by my massively superior skills," Dick whistled innocently. "Interesting username, by the way…'Speedy-B06?' Is that a comment on your 'skills' in certain _other_ areas…?"

"Y-you!" Roy spluttered furiously. "Shut up, twerpface! It was…I made that account when I was like thirteen, okay?"

"Suuure," Dick grinned easily, hopping off the table. "That's why all your stats start from last July."

Seething with rage, Roy tore the beanie from his head and threw it to the ground, turning on his heel to storm back into the Cave, face redder than the little feather emblem along the cap's rim.

The six turned back to one another, grins on every face.

Conner shuffled his feet slightly, cocking one eyebrow and stepping over to the unplugged speakers.

"So…back to P.Y.T.?"

To everyone's surprise, it was Kaldur who answered.

"Absolutely."


	3. Fright Night

Halloween was coming.

In Artemis's hometown (which, coincidentally, was also Dick's, but they lived on different sides of the city and that made a world of difference), Halloween was rarely anything short of a shitshow. Halloween was a chance to put on a mask, get into character and forget all your boundaries. After dark, no sane parent took their child trick-or-treating, and no cool teenager let their parents keep them in.

Artemis had not been cool, largely because her parents had been on the stricter end of the spectrum, to say the least. The one Halloween she'd picked the lock on her bedroom window and snuck out to a friend's rager, her dad had showed up around 1:30, shot the keg empty with his handgun and dragged her out by the hair, precluding any invitations to any party, ever again.

It was no surprise, then, that she was seriously looking forward to her first Halloween outside the tyrannical clutches of home. She was not alone in lacking authentic Halloween memories, at least; Conner's various foster families had never been big on it, Megan's experience had been limited to the very tame, daytime-TV-endorsed idea of the holiday, and Kaldur was unfamiliar with the concept entirely. Wally and Dick alone had progressed naturally through the trick-or-treating stage to the hang-out-with-friends-and-be-irresponsible stage, though despite their boasts Artemis had a feeling neither one of them had exactly been the life of the party in high school.

But in any case, there were three days to go until the big event (blessedly on a Saturday that year), and Artemis was taking things seriously. She had her costume – a sexy little toga with some gold sandals and a toy bow, to go as her namesake – and had volunteered to procure snacks for the get-together they'd all planned, after which they'd all head over to the big college-sponsored Halloween dance party.

At the moment, she was stretched out on her bed, perusing her political science textbook and chatting with Megan while the cheerleader worked on her own costume. In a predictable but endearing move, she had convinced Conner to be Ken to her Barbie, but because TV had taught her that really dedicated Halloween-goers made their own costumes, she was sewing herself a dress patterned after one of the doll's early outfits, a project that had taken up an exorbitant amount of time but seemed to make her very happy.

"So are you bleaching your hair, or what?" Artemis asked, flipping a page idly.

"Of course," Megan smiled back. "But not until the day of. I don't want to spoil the surprise."

"Mhmm," Artemis murmured, inwardly predicting a tally of zero surprised people. "What's Conner doing about his hair? Wasn't original Ken kind of blonde too?"

"Ken's hair changed color a lot," shrugged Megan. "Plus, I don't think I could convince Conner to dye his hair, just for Halloween."

"You could always threaten to withhold sex."

Megan let out a quiet yelp, and Artemis looked over to see her roommate sucking on the finger she'd just punctured with the needle, her face beet red.

"Oh, sorry," said Artemis with mild sincerity. "Are we still pretending you don't do that?"

As if on cue, Conner suddenly appeared in the doorway, backpack over his shoulder.

"Looks good," he commented, awkwardly gesturing to the half-constructed dress in Megan's lap, before he suddenly noticed her finger and her expression and frowned in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she assured him, lips curling up into a sweet smile. "I just poked myself with a needle."

Sensing a 'let me kiss it better' moment was approaching, Artemis dumped her textbook and jumped off her bed with a quick excuse about having left something in the study lounge.

"Again?" Wally remarked as she escaped into the hallway – he was in the process of locking his door, probably about to head out for a chemistry mentor session.

"You finally noticed?" she shot back, rolling her eyes. "And yes, again."

"I'm not stupid," Wally grinned, clapping her arm as he brushed past. "I knew. It's just funny to watch you get all jealous whenever I get my flirt on."

"What?" Artemis fumed. "I am _so _not – "

But he was gone, his laughter echoing in the stairwell as he disappeared.

Glowering, Artemis turned to head back to her room (it was probably safe by now), only to let out a scream of surprise as she nearly collided headfirst with Dick, who she _swore _had not been in the hallway before.

"What the hell, Grayson!"

He grinned.

"Hi."

"You scared the shit out of me!"

"I know."

"Ugh," Artemis groaned, shaking her head. "Of course you did. What's up?"

"Wanna see something awesome?"

"Is it going to induce cardiac arrest?"

"It's not _that _awesome."

"I never know with you," Artemis frowned. "But sure. Lead the way."

'The way' turned out to be right into his room, which was always a scary, scary place – she wasn't quite sure what he and Wally got up to in here, but aside from the general mess of two teenage boys sharing a living space (dirty clothes, snack wrappers, last weekend's shot glasses, etc.) there were always suspicious-looking science instruments lying around, not to mention the many jars of god-knows-what that Wally fed to his pet turtle, Velocity (what dweeb named their turtle Velocity, anyway?).

"So, what are you gonna be for Halloween?" she asked, trying to step where he stepped so as to avoid accidental amputation – you never knew what could be lurking underneath that discarded sweatshirt.

"That's a secret," said Dick, surprising her by hopping up onto his cluttered desk and holding out his hand.

"Sooo…you haven't decided yet," Artemis translated as she accepted the hand and let him pull her up beside him. Something crunched beneath her foot and she muttered an apology – so much for that Happy Meal toy.

"Think what you like," Dick shrugged, crouching and wiggling the screen free of his window – there was now nothing between them and the three-story drop. "How comfortable are you with heights?"

"If you get me killed, someone might care enough to send a mildly irritated letter," Artemis warned.

"It's fine. I've done this like three times now," he grinned, and stepped forward onto the windowsill. Then without warning, he jumped, and her heart nearly stopped – for a split second, she'd thought she was about to become sole witness to the clichéd suicide of the misunderstood rich kid, out of sight of his guardians at last…but no, of course he'd known what he was doing. He had caught hold of one of the branches of the big oak and was now standing quite comfortably on a thick bough, beckoning for her to join. The tree was actually quite close to his window; he'd probably only jumped because he wasn't quite tall enough to step the distance, a move Artemis managed with ease.

"This way," said Dick, beginning to climb.

He was obnoxiously agile, but Artemis knew better than to try and match his pace, not forty feet off the ground with only the bushes below to break a fall. She must have been nuts, following him out here in the first place, especially when it was starting to get dark. But she wasn't about to be the loser who chickened out after the hardest part was already over, so she followed him up the tree, keeping close to the trunk and testing her weight with each step.

As it turned out, the hardest part actually wasn't over – it was a bit of a hop from the last bough to the edge of the roof, and the branch she'd been using to steady herself had become too thin to be useful by that point. But all things considered, it was a pretty easy climb to the big roof pavilion.

"You couldn't have just broken into the maintenance stairwell like a normal person?" she asked, taking a second to catch her breath.

"Not as much fun," said Dick. "Next time."

Looking around, Artemis realized what he'd brought her to see – where there should have been a plain rooftop, only good for accessing the heating, air-con and ventilation systems, there were now two hammocks, a ping-pong table, an actual table, three lawn chairs, and a couch shaded by some contraption made of tarp and PVC piping.

"How the hell did you get all this stuff up here?" she asked in wonderment, walking forward to slip onto one of the hammocks, which was surprisingly comfortable.

"I broke into the maintenance stairwell like a normal person," he grinned as he slid into the other and folded his arms beneath his head. "Wally and I have been sneaking everything up piece by piece for a few weeks now. We thought this could be like a secret hideout for the gang, you know?"

"Not gonna lie, this is pretty sweet," Artemis admitted, impressed. "You're not worried about getting in trouble?"

"Come on," said Dick, laughing. "What are they going to do to me?"

"Tell your dad you're climbing trees as high as buildings to get to unsecured roofspace?"

"Bruce is the one who taught me how to pick which rules to break," Dick replied. "He'd probably come up with us if he were here."

"You call your dad by his first name?" Artemis asked, a little surprised.

"Bruce isn't my real dad," said Dick matter-of-factly.

"Right."

She of all people knew that blood did not a family make, so she left it with that, and the two of them drifted into silence as they watched the sky turn pink.

"You bringing that cutie from your Chinese class to our Halloween party?" Artemis asked, after a time.

"Zee?" Dick asked, sounding far too casual. "I was thinking about it. Why?"

Hesitating, Artemis tactfully decided not to mention the fact that they'd made out at a party at the beginning of the year. It was probably better if that stayed their little Secret.

"Just wondering," she shrugged instead, smiling over at him. "You totally should. Give us all someone to root for besides Conner and Megan."

"And – " Dick began, before suddenly cutting himself off.

"And what?"

"Never mind."

"Spit it out, Dick."

He grinned.

"Make me."

Without a moment's hesitation Artemis rolled out of the hammock and reached for him, but the kid was too damn fast; he scampered out of the way with a wicked laugh, leaving her grasping at the empty air where he'd just been. Cursing, Artemis let off a short laugh.

"You're an evil bastard, Grayson, and I hate you."

"Half true," Dick smiled.

Artemis sighed good-naturedly and glanced up at the sky, which had settled into a deep, mellow blue.

"It's going to be a bitch to get down in the dark," she remarked. Much as she liked the idea of staying out there all night, she did have homework.

"We can take the stairs," said Dick, slipping his hand into his jacket pocket.

"How? They're locked from this side."

"You think I don't have a key?"

In retrospect, she shouldn't even have asked. Dick unlocked the stairwell and the two of them headed down into the darkness; it would dump them in the common room.

"So are you going to tell everyone else about the new super secret hideout?" she asked as they descended.

"Definitely," he grinned. "We'll give it a code name, and all of us can have secret identities we only use when we're up there. It'll be like our own clandestine society."

"Secret identities?" echoed Artemis, giving him a look.

"What?"

She shook her head in amusement.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

* * *

><p>Halloween arrived on a clear, crisp autumn day. They'd decided on the girls' room for their party because Dick and Wally's was a wee bit sketchy and everyone felt bad about trashing Kaldur's living space, so Artemis had spent the afternoon picking the place up, putting away incriminating andor valuable things, and hanging the decorations Megan had made – they were a little bit cheesy but they were cute, and it gave the gathering some sense of legitimacy, anyway.

Artemis was just adjusting her carefully tousled half-bun in the mirror when there was a knock on the door. She glanced at the clock – 8:59.

Pulling up her toga slightly as to avoid showing any more cleavage than was already on display, she stepped to the door and opened it.

"Uh, hi, Kaldur," she blinked. "You're kind of early. And um, you are a…?"

"I thought we had agreed to begin at 9," he said uncertainly, adjusting the baseball cap currently sitting backwards on his head. "And I believe I am a…was it a 'brother?' Wally and Dick assisted me with my costume, but I am not certain I understand it."

"A bro," Artemis surmised, looking him up and down – layered polo shirts with their collars popped, sunglasses, backwards hat, long khaki shorts. The tattoos looked awfully out of place.

"Yes, that was it," Kaldur agreed, then hesitated a second, looking around the otherwise unoccupied room. "Where are…my bitches at?"

With a surprised laugh, Artemis flopped down on her bed, kicking off her sandals for the moment.

"Well generally when college parties say they start at 9, everyone gets there at 9:30 or 10," she explained. "But it's fine. Make yourself at home, have a few snacks. Everyone else will get here when they get here."

"I see."

"Uh, we can work on your bro speech in the meanwhile."

Fifteen minutes later, right when Artemis was in the middle of explaining the concept of a brofist, the door opened and Megan and Conner stepped in, the latter's arms full of paper grocery bags.

"Damn," Artemis nodded appreciatively, looking her roommate up and down. "You _do _look like Barbie."

"Thank you," Megan beamed – her hair was a sunny blonde and the dress was perfect, with oversized snaps sewn into the back to make it look like a tiny garment blown up to life size. It was as though she had completely transformed. Conner, on the other hand, looked exactly like Conner, except somehow also like Ken, because prototypical old-school American handsome dudes all kind of looked the same anyway.

"We got more snacks," he grunted, setting the bags down on the table. "Wally's coming."

"You mean he's coming now, or you got more snacks _because_ he's coming?" Artemis asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Both."

Well, fair enough.

"You look great, Artemis," M'gann smiled, and opened her mouth to continue when there was a loud knock on the door – Conner stepped over to answer it, and in burst Wally in a long white lab coat, chemistry goggles perched atop his unruly hair as he swung a heavy backpack from his shoulders.

"The Wal-man provides!" he announced, grinning and crouching down to unload his motherload – a handle each of vodka and rum, as well as a 12-pack of beer and two bottles of white wine.

"Effing sweet, home dog," Kaldur put in, as calm as ever. "Let us fuck shit up."

As Megan's eyes opened in shock (and perhaps horror), Wally just lifted his fist towards Kaldur, grinning broadly. With a self-conscious glance at Artemis, who had just educated him about this practice, Kaldur reached forward to bump his own fist hesitantly against Wally's.

"We'll work on that," Wally said, straightening out. "Anyway. I'm here, so the party can start now."

"Where did you even get all this?" Artemis asked, standing up to go get the solo cups she'd bought for the event out of the cupboard.

"Flirted with the cashier," Wally shrugged casually, and even with her back turned she could _hear _the smug little smirk plastered all over his face.

"Orrrr your 21-year-old lab partner bought it for you," cut in a new voice, and they turned to see Zatanna standing in the doorway, smiling amusedly at Wally, whose face had just seriously dropped.

"Kyle told you?"

"Hey Zee," Artemis grinned, opening the bag of cups and setting a stack down on the table. "You look great. Magician's assistant?"

"Magician," Zee corrected. She was wearing a pretty sexy take on the outfit, a snug black blazer with a gold vest, white button-up shirt, black shorts over fishnets and some serious boots; the look was tied together with a white bow-tie, and Artemis could already sense Wally's fail swag turning on. She'd have to remind him later that this was _his best friend's _date…

"Looking fine, my…ho?" Kaldur asked, looking to Artemis for guidance, but she could only shake her head in dismay.

"We're just waiting on Dick, then," said Megan. She looked around as Wally began to pour drinks, handing them off to whoever was nearest.

"Oh, he's ready," said Zee, taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to Kaldur and accepting the screwdriver Wally had just passed her way. "He's just doing some last-minute primping. Trying to get in character, I think he said."

"You know what he is?" Wally asked incredulously. "He wouldn't tell _me!" _

"Well, he needed my…expertise, with the costume," Zee shrugged, looking highly suspect. "Want me to go get him?"

The rest of them assented and settled into a circle around the center table as Conner fiddled with the stereo Dick had lent them, but he could only get it to play static; Wally hopped up to help him and voila, there was music, the beat gently thrumming through the room.

"Nice posters," Wally remarked to Megan, taking in his fellow redhead's clear affinity for television and movies as he sat back down. "You actually seen all these, or can I take you out to one sometime?"

"Well…" Megan began awkwardly, but she was saved from having to answer when the door swung open, revealing Dick, and his costume.

Artemis, who had the clearest view of the doorway, actually spit out her drink.

He was dressed as _her._

"Sorry I'm late, guys," said Dick in a damnably perfect imitation of her coarse alto. "I had to do my hair, and y'know, there's a lot of it."

And that there was – he had a ridiculously full blonde wig tied into a tight ponytail with a few strands falling to frame his face; his lips were glossed and he wore just a tiny bit of eyeliner, and he was wearing her usual cutoff leather jacket, white v-neck, snug jeans and heeled boots, and on top of that, he'd _stuffed his shirt._

"Oh my god," Wally muttered, looking like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be experiencing glee or horror.

"Dayyyum, girrrl," Kaldur deadpanned as Zatanna stepped past Dick to reclaim her seat. "You got some serious junk up in that trunk."

"Please don't ever say that again," Conner said flatly, leaving his roommate frowning in apology.

"Did you steal my clothes?" Artemis demanded.

"Nah," Dick grinned, flouncing onto the beanbag between Wally and Zee. "Had them specially made."

"Jesus Christ," Artemis muttered in disbelief.

"They say imitation is the highest form of flattery," Megan offered diplomatically.

"That is _not _imitation," Artemis objected. "My boobs are _not _that big."

"Yes, they are," chorused the entire room, leaving Artemis as red as the solo cup in her hands.

"Sooo," grinned Wally. "Now that we're all here, and we're done talking about Artemis's boobs, who's up for some beer pong?"

"No one's playing against _you, _Kid Flask," Dick said, arching an eyebrow. Wally had acquired the nickname early in the semester when they'd discovered he had the metabolism of a starved hyena and the alcohol tolerance of several overweight hippopotami.

"We can play teams," Wally argued. "And I'll drink my teammate's cups too."

"I'm game," Conner shrugged, cracking his neck before he smirked competitively. "Football team taught me to play. Think I can handle a little cross-country squirt like you."

"Oooh, you're on," Wally grinned back, and pulled his mad scientist goggles down to cover his eyes.

They chose their seconds – Conner picked Artemis, reputed to be a crack shot, and Wally invited Kaldur to be his non-drinking teammate since Kaldur wasn't drinking in the first place. Megan and Zee cleared the table and Dick declared himself referee, conspicuously adjusting his padded chest as he stood up and flipped a coin to determine who would go first (Conner). Before long, the game was afoot, both sides trading shots while the onlookers cheered them on, until at last Artemis sunk Wally's final cup and he admitted defeat with surprising grace, getting down on one knee to chug the drunk and taking an elegant bow when he finished.

As the evening wore on, the seven of them laughed and chatted and drank for a while longer, at ease with the dynamics that had developed as the semester had progressed – Megan sat in Conner's lap; Dick joked with everyone but especially with Zee; Wally and Artemis bickered for the amusement of the others; and Kaldur made sure no one did anything spectacularly stupid and/or tactless. By 10:30, some people (Megan) were on the far side of tipsy, while others (Artemis, Conner, Zee and Dick) were pretty squarely buzzed; Kaldur alone was truly sober, though Wally, despite having consumed more than anyone else, was close to it.

"So are we hitting up the real party or what?" Artemis finally asked when eleven was approaching and no one showed signs of leaving. "I want to get my dance on tonight."

"Dancing!" Megan giggled happily, standing up and stumbling slightly, though Conner was quick to catch her waist to steady her. "Let's go!"

"Sounds fun," Zee grinned, her face flushed a pretty pink. "I'm in."

"We're all in," Dick declared, raising his cup. "Finish your drinks, bitches, we're heading out!"

"Were you trying to imitate me right there?" Artemis asked skeptically. "Because I _so _don't talk like that."

"Shut up and finish your drink," Wally told her, quickly adding three more shots to his own and downing it.

"Pretty sure the amount of booze you've had tonight is supposed to kill you," Artemis grumbled, and followed suit. "All right, let's go."

"Autobots, roll out!" Wally grinned, leading the way as they all filed out of the room at varying degrees of wobbliness.

"Let us get at them bitchez, broski."

"Kaldur, just…no."

* * *

><p>Harbor Halloween, as the college-sponsored party was called, turned out to be a pretty crazy affair – it was hosted in the biggest parking garage on campus, and the music was so loud it was literally shaking the whole structure when they arrived. The dance floor was a clusterfuck of sweaty, costumed students engaging in dances that ranged from playful to suggestive to downright lewd.<p>

Almost immediately, the gang dispersed. Dick grabbed both Artemis and Zatanna by the hand and dragged them into the crowd, burrowing through the tightly-packed bodies to get closer to the center of the action, and within seconds Artemis had lost sight of anyone else. But by that point she was pleasantly buzzed anyway, and the pounding rhythm of the music soon took over; she let go of Dick's hand and let go of her inhibitions, letting her hips sway in time with the music as she found her step.

She didn't even notice when the great tide of the crowd separated her from her friends, nor did she mind when she realized she had no idea where any of the others were. This was the Halloween she'd been waiting to have since she'd left home – free at last. And anyway, giving Dick and Zee their space was probably a kindness at this point. Shrugging it off, Artemis turned her attention to the stunning girl who had wound up beside her – long black hair, some kind of glittering black jump suit, curves in all the right places – only to feel large hands grasp her hips from behind as someone decided now was a good time and place to grind.

"Hey," she growled, twisting herself free of the stranger's grip and turning around to face him. "Hands off."

"C'mon babe," the man slurred – probably a junior or a senior, bare-chested under his beige trench coat, and clearly drunk off his ass. He reached for her again, pulling her close and bucking his hips against hers despite her efforts to pull away. "S'just dancing."

"Get off me," she growled, looking frantically around – the other girl had disappeared, and everyone else seemed too busy dancing to notice what was going on. Realizing no one else was going to call this jerk out, Artemis for once in her life put her dad's lessons to use, and aimed a punch for the guy's nose.

Much to her surprise, he caught her arm before the blow could land.

"C'mon, blondie," he hissed, leaning in to her ear. "Y'don't come to a party dress like that if y'don't want the attention…"

"Yeah, that's actually not how that works," said new voice, and Artemis turned to see the black-haired beauty from before standing there, and at her side, a very tall, very threatening-looking man in a suit and tails, a stovepipe hat on his head and a presumably fake axe in his hand. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, Artemis could only assume.

"Fuck off," the upperclassman snarled, tightening his grip on Artemis's shoulders.

"Funny," said the newcomer, shouldering his axe and cracking his knuckles. "I was about to say the same to you."

…_Roy?_

Artemis immediately reconsidered her assessment about the fakeness of the axe.

"You wanna make something of this?" the upperclassman growled, letting go of Artemis, who quickly stepped away, sensing shit was about to hit the fan.

"Maybe we do," Roy drawled, and a slight stagger in his step told Artemis that he wasn't much more sober than the rest of them. Just as she moved forward and raised her fists, ready to be a part of this fight, a hand closed around her arm, tugging her back into the crowd.

"Come on," Wally urged, pulling her away. "I know you can kick his ass, but they got this. Let's get out of here."

Before she could protest, he'd dragged her back into the thick of it, towards the back of the crowd, and the exit. When they'd cleared the densest part of the dance floor, he let go and turned to her, checking to see if he still had his goggles, which he did.

"You okay?"

"Since when d'you give a shit?" she grumbled, stumbling slightly as the crowd jostled them.

"Since…never mind," he sighed, rolling his eyes. "I'm not actually an asshole, contrary to what you've clearly thought since I first met you."

"What?" Artemis snapped. "You're the one who decided I was some huge bitch on move-in day, when you – "

"Get a room," Dick's voice suddenly cut in as he and Zee appeared out of the crowd, both somewhat more disheveled than they'd been the last time Artemis had seen them.

"Or burgers," Zee giggled. "We were thinking burgers."

"How exactly are you planning on acquiring burgers?" Artemis asked skeptically, though she couldn't deny that hot food sounded like an excellent idea.

"I have a car," Dick grinned.

"You're drunk."

"Kaldur's not."

"Fair enough, where is he?"

"Wait, more importantly, where are my keys?" Wally asked, checking his pockets with sudden panic.

"They are here," said Kaldur, materializing as if on cue and retrieving them from his pocket. "Artemis, I have your phone as well."

"I lost my phone?"

"Apparently so."

And they were off – Dick (who always seemed to know where everyone was, all the time) tracked down Conner and Megan, and the seven of them piled into Dick's sedan, with Megan in Conner's lap and Dick in Zee's, and after a long and bitter shotgun dispute, Artemis begrudgingly clambered into the middle seat between them while Wally declared himself navigator in the front ("engage thrusters, Mr. Sulu!").

Despite the overcrowded car, the general drunkenness of its occupants, and the considerable disapproval of the driver, they made it to a 24-hour drive-thru without incident and placed an order for the ages. By the time 2 AM rolled around, Kaldur had managed to shepherd them back to Mountain Hall, where they half ran, half stumbled up the two flights of stairs to the Cave, giggling all the way.

"The double cheeseburger is mine," Wally shouted out as Zee unpacked one of the six take-out bags they'd acquired; the hallway was rapidly descending into chaos.

"Which one?"

"All of them."

"Oh."

"Is this yours?"

"No, I think it's – "

"Pass the ketchup."

"Where're my fries?"

"What, you didn't get enough on your shirt already?"

"Shut it, dollface."

"Who the hell ordered _this?_"

"Oy, that milkshake is totally mine."

"And you better believe it brings all the – "

"WALLY."

"Megan, I do not think the paper is intended for – "

" – holy shit, are you okay?"

The hall fell abruptly silent at Conner's question, and as one, they turned to see Roy standing at the top of the stairs, suitjacket ripped and his white shirt spattered with blood (though by some miracle, he still had the stovepipe hat).

"I'm fine," he grumbled, slumping lazily against the wall. "You should see the other guy."

Artemis looked him up and down – the blood was probably from his nose, which was bleeding but didn't look broken, and aside from that he just looked scuffed up, with a dark shiner developing over his left eye.

"Where's your girlfriend?" she asked, deciding he was probably fine.

"What?" he mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the bleeding. "Who?"

"The hot chick from the party, dumbass."

"That's my ex, not my girlfriend," he said. "And I walked her home, not that it's any of your business."

"How sweet," Artemis smirked.

"Hot chick?" Wally asked, perking up. "Can I get a phone number?"

"How about you get a life instead?"

"How about _you – "_

"I'll give you five bucks for one of those burgers," Roy interrupted, eyeing the food hungrily.

"There is no need to pay – "

" – shut up, Kaldur," Wally said quickly, sharing a look with Dick. "We'll uh, we'll make you a deal."

"I'm _not _giving you Donna's number."

"We want your hat," Dick clarified, with the trolliest of smiles.

"My hat?" Roy repeated incredulously. "Also, is that Grayson under all that hair, or did blondie acquire a doppelganger?"

"Go die," muttered Artemis.

"Your hat," Dick repeated. "For a burger."

"Should I even ask?"

"It's for Science," Wally grinned, the capital letter implicit in the way he said the word.

"Fine," Roy agreed. "But it's gotta be a cheeseburger."

"Done," said Dick. He tossed one up and over to Roy, who made the catch and immediately began to unwrap it, clearly famished.

"Ahem," Wally cut in. Roy rolled his eyes.

"Impatient little runt," he grunted, reaching up to grab the hat off his head, which he flung to the ground amidst the wrappers and mess.

"Fascinating," Wally grinned.

"A most revealing experiment," Dick agreed.

"Are they always this weird?" Zee asked Artemis, picking up the hat and putting it on – it actually kind of suited her, come to think of it…

"Yeah," Artemis sighed, leaning back to watch Roy disappear into his room – the door slammed shut, rattling on its hinges, and he was gone. "Pretty much."


	4. Giving Thanks

Artemis stood on the curb outside Mountain Hall, duffel bag over her shoulder. It was the day before Thanksgiving and campus, it seemed, was evacuating.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" asked Megan for what was probably the eighteenth time, if you only counted that morning. "I can get you a plane ticket, Arty, it's not a problem, rea – "

" –seriously, it's cool," Artemis interrupted, rubbing her hands together. Damn, it was getting cold outside lately. "I don't want to be the thirteenth wheel or whatever it is with your sisters. And Conner and I promised we'd do anti-Thanksgiving together."

"I can get you _both _tickets," Megan pressed. "It's not too late."

"Megan, seriously. It's _fine." _

The redhead frowned but relented, stepping forward to take the duffel from Artemis, who had carried it down for her; she'd apparently stuffed half her wardrobe into it, because everyone knew you needed a dozen different looks for a five-day trip home. Personally, Artemis wasn't all that torn up about spending Thanksgiving in the dorms – it sure beat spending it with her family, even if she had a feeling that she and Conner weren't exactly about to make a knockout cooking duet.

"I think that's my taxi," said Megan as a yellow cab pulled onto the street and began to slow down, clearly reading building labels. "Are you really sure – "

" – I'm really sure," Artemis cut her off. "Have a safe flight, all right? And a good Thanksgiving and all that stuff too."

"I will," Megan smiled, sounding unexpectedly tearful as she turned to give her roommate a warm hug. "I'll miss you. All of you."

"Don't get sappy on me now," Artemis smiled, returning the hug then sending the other girl towards her cab with a light push. "We'll all be back in just a few days. It'll feel like nothing."

She waved until the taxi was out of sight, then turned to head back up into the dormitory, where things were pretty quiet. Dick had left the previous night, collected by the same man who'd baked them cookies at the beginning of the year. Wally had gotten up at the break of dawn to catch his plane home to spend the holiday with his family, and Kaldur had left not long after to board a train south, hoping to surprise "his fineass lady love," as Wally had dubbed Tula upon seeing her picture.

That left Artemis and Conner on the hall, but they'd both agreed that being in college meant that Thanksgiving dinner could consist of whatever the hell they wanted it to consist of, and had made some sort of drunken pledge to cook "the most bitchin' Thanksgiving dinner in the history of ever" the previous weekend. So it was going to be all right.

Artemis spent the rest of Wednesday in blissful isolation, door shut, headphones on, enjoying the rare moment of downtime afforded by the break in classes. She cleaned her room. She organized her desk. She caught up on the many TV shows she'd missed out on due to homework or parties or deep, unexpected 3 AM conversations. And then she slept for fourteen straight hours. Regrets? None.

It was raining when she woke up, which wouldn't have been a problem except that she and Conner hadn't yet acquired any groceries for their meal, and neither of them owned a car. On their hall, only Dick and Megan did, and Artemis didn't enjoy driving either one of them – Dick's looked normal enough on the outside but it had all these hidden features you were likely to accidentally activate that were then impossible to shut off, and Megan's was some weird model that looked like it came from Mars and ran on Biodiesel or something. Besides, both of them had taken their keys with them.

"Hey, muscleboy," Artemis called, knocking on Conner's door – it was 2 PM; he was probably awake by now. "You up?"

After a moment of shuffling noises, the door swung open. Conner was still in his pajamas – that is to say just in track pants – but his lights were on and so was his computer, so it was safe to say she hadn't woken him up.

"Hey," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Um, what's up?"

"When were we going to go grocery shopping?" Artemis asked. "It's kinda wet out there."

"Grocery shopping?"

"For anti-Thanksgiving," Artemis prompted. Did the kid hit his head at football practice, or what? "You know, that thing that's today?"

"Oh," Conner said, his eyes widening slightly in realization. "Um. Shit. I uh…about that."

"Don't tell me you're bailing," Artemis groaned, rolling her eyes. "Are you serious? I'm going to spend Thanksgiving eating ice cream by myself in my room, watching the rain fall against my window like an emo kid?"

"No," Conner protested. "No, you're invited too, I just forgot to tell you."

"Invited where?"

"Dinah…um, I mean Dr. Lance, the guidance counselor," Conner explained. "She said I could bring a friend. I was just about to get ready, we're supposed to leave in like an hour."

"What? My hair takes way longer than an hour to dry," Artemis protested. "You couldn't have told me any of this sooner?"

"I said I forgot, I'm sorry," Conner frowned grumpily. "And your hair looks fine the way it is."

"Nice try, but I have a feeling Dr. Lance's standards might be a little higher than yours," said Artemis, already heading back to her room. Jesus, she wasn't even sure she had a clean dress to wear, because if Dr. Lance's normal wardrobe was any indication, showing up in a tank top and sweatpants was not going to cut it – time to play dress up. Since when was Conner tight with the first-year guidance counselor anyway? And was it just going to be the three of them? Awkward much?

Twenty minutes later, hair brushed and drying (though by no means dry), Artemis discovered that her one pair of respectable heels was missing. She'd checked her room, the study lounge, Conner and Kaldur's room, and the crawlspace at the foot of the stairs where she and Dick sometimes hid to scare passers-by for shits and giggles, but to no avail – apparently drunk Artemis had been more creative than that. Since she couldn't get into Dick and Wally's room to check there, the only place left to check was the Summit, which was the name they'd given to the rooftop hangout Dick had shown Artemis just before Halloween (since it was at the top of Mountain Hall, that was just good sense).

Strangely, the key to the maintenance staircase, usually underneath Wally and Dick's doormat, was missing. Artemis tried the door anyway and found it unlocked, which given that Conner was still in the shower, was odd – theoretically no one knew about it but the six of them, and the other four had all left town…

But when she opened the door at the top, hood up to avoid getting soaked by the weather, there was definitely someone up there.

It was Kaldur – even from behind, Artemis could tell by the build and by the distinctive juxtaposition of his light hair and dark skin. He was standing at the edge of the rooftop with his back turned to her, staring out over the little green slice of campus bordering the dormitory, thin hoodie plastered to his shoulders by the pouring rain. And if all of that (on top the fact that he wasn't even supposed to _be_ there) didn't send a clear enough message that something was wrong, the look on his face when he turned at the sound of the door sure did.

"Kaldur?" Artemis asked, taking an uncertain step towards him, into the rain. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine," he said quickly, the lie clumsy and obvious.

"Bullshit," Artemis frowned. "I thought you were spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta. What happened?"

"I…returned this morning, on an early train," Kaldur replied, turning away from her as if to avoid her eyes. Artemis crossed the roof to stand beside him, making it clear that she wasn't leaving him up here alone, even if it was pouring and freezing and all sorts of other nasty things. Something was up.

"I can see that," she said, laying a hand on his arm. "But why? Is everything okay with Tula?"

"She is fine," he nodded, hesitating before he continued. "She is…with Garth."

"What?" Artemis frowned. "Your _best friend_ Garth? And like, _with _with?"

"Yes," Kaldur nodded, taking a deep breath. "It seems that in my absence they…developed a mutual affection."

"Kaldur…I'm so sorry," Artemis said sincerely, unsure what to say. "I…I thought you said you guys had some sort of an understanding."

He gave a faint, hollow laugh, looking off into the distance again.

"Apparently, I misunderstood."

Cringing, Artemis suddenly wished she were tall enough to wrap a proper arm around his shoulders, but settled for squeezing his arm instead. They stayed like that for a moment, silent but for the sound of raindrops falling home, until finally, soaked to the bone, Artemis cleared her throat.

"Look, I know you probably want some time to yourself but uh, maybe standing out in the rain all day isn't such a good idea, you know?" she suggested gently. "Come inside?"

"I do not mind the rain," he replied quietly, then forced a small, faltering smile. "But perhaps…company would be a good idea, if it is not a burden."

"Conner and I are apparently having Thanksgiving at Dr. Lance's in like half an hour," Artemis said as they turned to head back inside. "I'm sure there's room for one more."

Kaldur looked taken aback.

"I do not wish to intrude on – "

" – seriously it's cool, I didn't even know about it until today," Artemis assured him, opening the door to the stairwell. Her shoes, it seemed, were not out here.

"I am afraid I will not be a very good guest," Kaldur frowned.

"And Conner is Captain Conversationalist, now?"

"I did not intend to imply anything about him, I simply meant that – "

" – you're not up to being chatty," Artemis finished for him as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Understandable, I mean Jesus, you just had your heart stomped on. It's fine. I'll talk to Dr. Lance about family problems or something, that'll last all night."

"Are you certain she will not mind an extra guest?"

"Look, if you're that worried about it," said Artemis, pushing open the door to the hallway, "we'll call ahead and ask if it's okay to bring one more."

"No need," said a new voice, and Artemis looked sharply to her left to see Roy standing there, currently rolling back the cuffs of his button-down shirt – he looked crisp, put-together, sharp, for once. "It's fine. Car has room."

"What?" Artemis blinked. "Who invited _you?_"

"Uh, the fact that it's my dad's Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Dinah is your dad?"

Roy rolled his eyes.

"Hilarious," he deadpanned. "But no. She's dating my dad. My foster dad. I'm guessing she invited you all to decrease the likelihood that he and I beat the shit out of each other by the end of the night."

"Sounds like _my _family," muttered Artemis. "It's cool if Kaldur comes, then?"

Roy nodded, looking the other boy up and down – Kaldur was thoroughly drenched, water actually dripping off him onto the hall floor. If she had to guess, Artemis would say he'd been out there several hours, and suddenly she was struck with the urge to hug him all over again.

"You look like shit," said Roy bluntly.

"I – " Kaldur began, but Artemis cut him off.

"You've had worse days," she shot back at Roy, then turned to Kaldur. "Half an hour enough time to get cleaned up?"

He nodded and made for his room while the other two watched him go.

"Be nice to him," Artemis ordered Roy, pulling off her own rain-soaked sweatshirt and shaking out her hair. "He just got dumped."

"She's an idiot," said Roy, and disappeared into his room without another word.

* * *

><p>Roy's car was old and dented and only one of the windshield wipers worked – a problem, given the weather conditions – but they made it to Dean Queen's in one piece, Artemis sitting shotgun while Kaldur and Conner stared out their respective windows in the back. Her hair still wasn't dry and she never <em>had <em>found her shoes, but Megan's fit her fine, and she assumed (or at least hoped) her roommate would be fine with her borrowing them for the day. And when it came down to it, they were heading for free food, so Artemis couldn't really complain.

"Were we supposed to bring a host present of some kind?" she asked as she opened her umbrella and avoided the puddle just outside the car door.

"Uh," said Conner helpfully.

"You're college students. It's basically a free pass on being accidentally rude," Roy shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

They followed him up the walk to the house, where warm light was spilling out onto the rain-drenched lawn, and Artemis was seized with the normal discomfort she experienced whenever she was about to encounter someone else's home life. It was just too foreign - she didn't know how normal families worked.

To her relief, Roy's family turned out to be sub-normal.

Dean Oliver Queen was a broad-chested man with a thoroughly annoying blond goatee and a laugh that practically shook the windows; the depths of his joviality were matched only by the depths of Roy's obvious irritation at having to put up with him. Ollie, as they were told to call him, hugged every single one of them as they entered, then passed them on to Dinah ("I'm not Dr. Lance in my own home, all right?") who took their coats and umbrellas with an apologetic remark about the awful weather.

The house itself was small and cozy, with an old, thick carpet and a dining table set with mismatched dishware. Two of the place settings sat before a piano bench, apparently repurposed from its normal position by the upright in the living room, where a lively fire was crackling away in the fireplace; Artemis got the sense that this was a lived-in house, cleaned up for company but home to many fond memories. Roy, for all his grumbling, seemed instantly at home.

"So who wants _wine?" _Ollie asked excitedly, emerging from the kitchen with an open bottle.

"Oliver, they're underage," Dinah pointed out. "Are you tryingto get yourself fired?"

"Oh lighten up, my little chickadee," Ollie chuckled, then clapped a large hand on Conner's shoulder. "You're a big strapping boy, you can handle a little booze, right?"

Conner mumbled something that might have been consent, and Ollie filled his glass, moving next to Roy, who just raised his cup expectantly. Dinah sighed in exasperation.

"My boys," she muttered to Artemis. "They never change."

"Come on now," Ollie pressed as he foisted a dangerously full cup on Kaldur, who was trying to decline it as politely as possible (an ineffective technique, as it turned out).

"He doesn't drink," Artemis offered helpfully. "But I'll take that."

"Good girl," Ollie beamed, moving on and passing her the glass. "How's Poli-Sci going, by the way? I saw you pulled your grade up from first quarter."

"I…what?" Artemis spluttered, taking a quick sip of wine to stall. "Um, are you supposed to know that?"

"Probably not," he said with a broad, unabashed grin. "But I don't see a problem with keeping tabs on one of my own. I'm your sponsor, after all."

"Er, my what?"

"Your sponsor," he repeated, as if the word itself had been the problem. Dinah held her glass out for wine as he offered a more helpful explanation.

"Some students are chosen specially by admissions officers," she said, "who are then supposed to contact them, keep in touch, offer support, that kind of thing. Clearly, some do a better job of it than others."

"Oh," said Artemis. She vaguely remembered an e-mail about something like that, maybe with Dean Queen's name on it, but she'd pretty much disregarded it – she didn't need anyone's help. She was doing just fine without it. Just because she didn't come from a swanky prep school like everyone else…

"Well, now that Oliver has broken several clauses of his contract and provided you all with alcohol, shall we eat?" Dinah suggested, gesturing towards the dining table, set for six (Roy had apparently texted that they were bringing a spare). The rest assented, and they moved over.

If Artemis had simply been asked to describe dinner, she would have said it was "interesting." But if she had been asked to draft a comprehensive list of adjectives to describe dinner, it would have looked something like this:

Delicious – "My pretty bird baked us a pretty bird," Oliver had beamed as Dinah had brought out the turkey. He'd made everything else on the table; the potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberries, and the chili (why there was chili at a Thanksgiving dinner, Artemis wasn't sure, but it had nearly killed Kaldur, who apparently wasn't much accustomed to spiciness). And it had all been infinitely better than cafeteria food. They'd eaten hearty, particularly the pie, which had been inhumanly good.

Surprisingly animated – despite the presence of two ordinarily quiet people at the table, the conversation had come fairly naturally. Perhaps it was because Dinah was paid to get people to talk on a regular basis, but between Ollie and Roy's near-constant bickering and the strange emboldening effect Dinah seemed to have on Conner (Artemis had never seen him so _comfortable_), they made it through an hour and a half of eating without any awkward lulls, except those produced by Ollie's amazing knack for bringing everything to a grinding halt. This brought Artemis to her last adjective.

Eventful –Kaldur's near-death chili experience aside, Ollie had successfully (albeit unintentionally) brought up a personally sensitive subject for every person at the table but Dinah. He'd asked about Artemis's sister, revealing to Kaldur and Conner that she _had _a sister, something she'd successfully hidden without lying up until that point. He'd mentioned what a handsome young man Conner was, remarking that his mother and father must be lookers too – oops. He'd made some casual remark about 'adolescent rebellion' that had sent Roy storming from the table, not to return until dessert, and then only with Dinah's coaxing. And then to top it off, he'd asked Kaldur if there were any 'special ladies' in his life, at which point Kaldur had just stared at his plate and struggled for words in the most painful way possible. By the time dinner was over, Artemis wasn't sure she'd ever seen such rapidfire faux pas. It would have been entertaining if it hadn't been so awful.

"So, how about a house tour?" Artemis suggested to Roy, who was lying supine on the couch, some spectacular combination of overly full and wined up.

Conner was helping Dinah and Ollie pack up leftovers in the kitchen. Mostly, Artemis was just hoping to distract Kaldur, who was staring out the window at the rain again; she couldn't stand seeing him this mopey. It just wasn't right. To her surprise, Roy grunted his agreement and hauled himself off the couch, beckoning them down the short hallway that branched off the living room.

It was a small house, without much to see; there was a master bedroom, a small bathroom, Ollie's study, and a one-car garage that doubled as a laundry room, which also featured a wall-mounted case with an impressive array of old-fashioned bows and quivers. Ollie, apparently, was an archery aficionado.

"You missed a room," Artemis pointed out as they moved back towards the main part of the house, where Ollie's laugh was currently booming. "That's _your _room, isn't it?"

"It's boring," said Roy, continuing on. "You don't need to look in there."

"I'm looking anyway," Artemis announced, doubling back, at which Roy muttered something that sounded like "knock yourself out."

Kaldur hesitated a moment before he seemed to decide that _not _encroaching on their RA's privacy was probably the better move, and followed Roy to the living room. Alone, Artemis slipped inside.

It was definitely the room of a teenaged boy – the posters told the story, between the suggestively posted female pop stars and the angsty boy bands. The thought instantly made Artemis laugh as she thought of Roy's very serious demeanor.

A few touches told a more unique story. There were photos on his bulletin board – a serviceman of some kind, _Roy Harper, Sr. _in the caption; a group of dark-haired young people smiling in what looked like traditional dress, though of what, Artemis couldn't say; a younger, lankier Roy posed with Dinah at the Grand Canyon. There were a series of trophies from various sports, gathering dust on the windowsill, and a pin dangling from the lamp on the nightstand – _THREE YEARS, _it read, with no more explanation.

Then there was the hat. Yellow, felt, with a jaunty red feather sticking off the left side…it looked like it had to be part of a costume of some kind, but it was just sitting there on the shelf above the bed, minding its own business, and Artemis could not resist.

The others were in the doorway when she arrived, Dinah handing off a paper bag of leftovers to Kaldur and whispering something in his ear that earned a weak smile. While Conner pulled on his shoes and Roy argued with Ollie about some meaningless allocation of pie, Artemis made her move, sneaking up behind him and standing on her tip-toes to slap the hat down on his head.

"What the – " he growled, reaching up to figure out just what had happened, at which point his face turned deadly white.

"Oh hey, I've missed that – " Ollie had just begun to say with great affection, when Roy suddenly grabbed the thing and threw it violently to the ground. Before any of them had a chance to react, Roy had pushed past Conner to the door, wrenching it open and disappearing into the rain without another word.

"Uh," Artemis blinked as an awkward silence fell. "Did I cross a line?"

"No, sweetie," Dinah sighed, bending down to pick up the hat. Ollie looked like he might cry. "He just gets like this when he's a little drunk. Roy is…sensitive."

"We noticed," muttered Conner.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Dinah told them, reaching over to plant the hat on Ollie's head instead; he blew her a kiss in response. "Drive safe, all right? It's nasty out there."

They thanked their hosts profusely – seriously, the leftovers were going to last them until the dining halls reopened – and headed for the car.

They picked up Roy about three blocks down, where he was waiting for the pedestrian light to change, drenched and shivering. Initially, he refused to get in, even when Artemis rolled down the window to reason with him, but when Kaldur killed the engine, got out of the car and had a few choice words with him, he relented, and got in the back seat. The rest of the drive home was silent.

* * *

><p>It was great to have a break from school, but honestly, Artemis's favorite part of it was Friday night, when a loud explosion from the hallway told her that Dick was back, and she rushed out of her room to find Wally and Megan were with him, all fresh from the airport with their suitcases in tow.<p>

"We just couldn't stay away," was their only explanation for the early return. And sandwiched between Wally and Kaldur on the couch that night, watching endless internet videos of cats on Dick's projector while Megan and Conner cuddled on the floor in front, Artemis found herself very glad for that.


	5. Play the Game

Early December – final exams cometh.

Artemis let her head fall forward onto her music theory textbook, groaning as she realized she'd been reading the same paragraph repeatedly for the last three minutes.

"Is Super Fun Learning Time over yet?" she asked, more a plea than a question.

Dick checked his watch.

"Eight minutes left," he said, sticking her in the side with his pencil; she shrieked and almost toppled sideways off her chair, catching the edge of the table just in time.

"Are we honestly sticking to a strict schedule?" Zatanna asked as Artemis righted herself with a murderous glare at Dick. "We've been out here so long I swear I'm reading everything backwards."

"Remmub," Dick grinned, at which point Artemis simply kicked over his chair – he was light; it wasn't hard. He yelped and went sprawling, though somehow landed on his feet, like he always seemed to do.

"I vote we disperse early," Wally yawned from the head of the table. They could barely see him for the stack of science textbooks piled in front of his workstation. In fact, Artemis had almost forgotten he was there.

"Seconded," she agreed.

Zatanna closed her linguistics textbook and stood up, slamming it down onto the table with a _bang._

"Motion carried," she announced. "Project Beautify the Cave starts now."

Dick seemed to realize he was outvoted, shrugging and moving to pack up his books. It wasn't like he'd been studying, anyway, since Richard "156" Grayson and his genius-level IQ didn't need to study for final exams, just needed to supervise those who did. Not that Artemis was irritated by this. _Not at all._

When everyone had finished packing up, they headed back into the hallway, overstuffed backpacks in tow, more subdued than usual. Saturday mornings were not supposed to be spent studying. They were supposed to be spent sleeping, or at the very least eating junk cereal and watching superhero cartoons.

"Mind if I leave my stuff in your room?" Zatanna asked Artemis as they shuffled into the Cave, which was looking even drabber than it normally did, somehow.

Artemis nodded and unlocked her door so they could both drop their things off while Dick and Wally moved to do the same. At least the rest of the day should be fun – they were decorating the hall in Conner's honor since it was both his birthday and the last football game of the season (technically speaking, he didn't know when his birthday really was, but he'd picked today, and they were rolling with it). Later, after the game, they'd party it up in his name and try to forget that finals were just around the corner.

"Where's Kaldur?" Wally frowned as he emerged from his room, a helium tank under his arm. "I haven't seen him all morning."

"Sleeping?" Zatanna suggested, at which the other three laughed – clearly, she didn't know Kaldur that well yet. "Or not."

"Probably at the pool or something," Artemis shrugged. She sat down to untangle the first set of streamers from the second – they had three set in all, white, black and red, their school colors – then pulled out her phone. "I'll text him."

"He hasn't missed a single one of Conner's games," Dick pointed out, his voice coming from somewhere inside his room. "I bet he'll turn up. Anyone seen my staple gun?"

"It's on your utility belt," Wally replied helpfully. "Who wants to help me blow up balloons?"

"It's not a utility belt!" Dick objected over the sound of rummaging. "It's just a belt with a lot of utility!"

"You can do the balloons yourself," Artemis told Wally, handing the end of one of the streamers to Zatanna then turning back to him with a smirk. "You blow hard enough for all of us."

"Your mom definitely thought so last night," Wally retorted, just in time for Dick to emerge onto the hallway and execute a magnificent eye roll, staple gun in hand.

They got to work, Dick and Zatanna teaming up to put up the streamers while Artemis and Wally took on the balloons. Technically speaking they weren't supposed to put staples in the walls, but since Bruce Wayne had paid for said walls in the first place, and Dick was the one wielding the staple gun, they figured it wouldn't be an issue.

On the broad, empty wall between the bathroom and Roy's room they tacked up the birthday poster they'd made for Conner, their well-wishes scrawled in the margins around the main picture, which was a blown-up version of Disney's Stitch that Megan had lovingly drawn and colored.

("Stitch" was Conner's Summit nickname, acquired after he sobbed through the entire second half of the movie, declared the entire hall his "ohana" then hugged a very alarmed Wally so hard he'd nearly broken his ribs. To be fair, he'd been drunk, but when asked the next day if he'd meant any of it, he'd just turned red and mumbled something that was many things, but not a denial.)

"What are the odds Grumpy pops all the balloons before we get back from the game?" Zatanna asked, stepping back to admire their handiwork.

("Grumpy," of course, was Roy.)

"Low," Dick assessed. "I'm pretty sure he'd wait for us to get back so he could do it in front of us."

"He's only an asshole when he has an audience," Artemis agreed. "We should be safe."

"Gametime?" Wally grinned, standing up and stretching. "Gotta make sure we get good seats."

"'Good seats' meaning 'near the cheerleaders?'" Artemis asked, arching an eyebrow.

Wally whistled innocently, avoiding her gaze.

"…maaaybe."

* * *

><p>Despite the cold weather (winter in the Northeast was not kind), there was a long line to get into the football stadium, which in retrospect was predictable. It was the last game of the season, they were playing their rival school, and everyone was looking for an excuse to get out of studying for finals, so naturally most of the college had turned up, plus a large portion of the surrounding community. Artemis could spot Dr. Logan, one of Wally's biology professors, accompanied by her young son Garfield, as well as Dudley the Groundskeeper and his nephew Billy. It was going to be a packed game, and hopefully a good one too.<p>

Stuck near the door by a backup in the line, Artemis tucked the sign she was carrying under her arm and checked her phone once more, wondering where the hell Kaldur had gotten to. It wasn't like him to ignore texts, or to fail to show up to things, though technically he'd never confirmed he was coming. She just hoped everything was okay.

"Dude," said Wally suddenly, nudging her arm and jostling her out of her thoughts. "Look at that security guard. Seem familiar?"

She looked over, ready to crack a joke about CampSec and that last time they'd sprinted all the way from north campus in just their bathing suits (Dick's brilliant plan to break into the rec pool had turned out not to be so brilliant). But it wasn't one of the guards they'd evaded that night – it was a younger guy, tall and broad-shouldered with red hair and a square jaw, a very familiar combination.

"Well shit," said Artemis. "Does Grumpy have a twin or something?"

They didn't have time to investigate further, though, as the line moved forward and they were essentially jostled into the stadium. Soon enough the issue was forgotten as they found a string of empty seats and settled in to the sound of the pump-up music currently blasting through the speakers.

Beatus Portum wasn't a huge sports school – they didn't get national coverage of their games or anything – but the team was well-respected in its division, and their record had been particularly good this season. Ordinarily Artemis couldn't be bothered to give a shit about football; she certainly hadn't before college. But it was a pretty big deal when your good friend was the first freshman quarterback in the history of the league, and besides, it was fun to go to games with the rest of the gang.

"There's Megan," Zee smiled suddenly, lifting her hand to wave frantically down at the field below. When the cheerleader didn't notice, chatting with one of her squadmates, Wally lifted two fingers to his lips and whistled so loudly Artemis nearly fell off her chair for the second time that day. It was effective, though; Megan turned and looked up, then beamed and waved excitedly at the rest of them.

Grinning back, Artemis flipped up the sign she'd brought – #04 (Conner's number) in big red numerals edged with black. The rest of the gang followed suit: Zee's sign simply read "Go Conner!" while Wally's said "53 – (5! + i4)" and Dick's read "This Sign is Meta," because apparently not even Conner's big day was to be spared his unrelenting eccentricity. Megan seemed to love them all, and gave them a big thumbs up and a smile before waving and running off to join her squad.

"She looks so natural out there," Zatanna smiled, settling back in her chair. It was true. Cheerleading suited Megan's natural disposition, bubbly and straight-laced and supportive, and it was good to see her enjoying herself.

"Here come the bad guys," Wally remarked as the opposing team shuffled out onto the field. Cadmus University's white uniforms were painfully bright in the winter sunshine, almost as bright as their coach's bald head. The crowd stirred, a mix of polite cheers and vicious boos rising up from the stands.

Out of the corner of her eye, Artemis spotted Dick casually reach into his pocket – _too _casually. But just as she turned to interrogate him about it, the stadium speakers suddenly crackled and cut out mid-verse of Eye of the Tiger, and instead Darth Vader's Imperial March began blasting out its ominous brassy chorus. The crowd roared with laughter. Cadmus' Coach Luthor merely looked annoyed.

"Dude," Wally said, turning to Dick, who was grinning ear to ear. "Did you – "

" – yup," Dick smirked. "Hacked the sound system."

"Nice," Artemis laughed, putting her feet up on the empty seat in front of her as the AV crew went rushing for the media control office. In her pocket, her cell phone buzzed to herald a new message.

_My apologies, _read Kaldur's text. _Something has come up. Please convey my support to Conner._

Artemis shook her head, wondering when Kaldur was going to figure out that cool kids didn't text in complete sentences (or set their phones to anything but vibrate, come to think of it – his cell had an obnoxiously loud alert noise).

_we'll cheer extra loud 4 u, _she texted back, and slipped her phone back into her pocket, shivering slightly. Even with her down jacket on, it was pretty damn cold out.

The four of them chatted aimlessly for a little while, passing the time as the stadium slowly filled with the biggest crowd the season had seen yet – the stands were going to be packed. When the Wolves (affectionately referred to simply as "The Team") jogged out from the locker rooms, the crowd exploded with cheers, but none louder than theirs, and soon enough, the game was underway.

Dick narrated, his running commentary an amalgam of Quidditch references, bald jokes and a very small smattering of pertinent information. Artemis had never really bothered to learn the rules of football so she focused instead on admiring the way the uniforms showed off the players' butts very nicely, and found it much more rewarding than attempting to follow the actual game.

Apparently, though, it wasn't going so well. Come halftime, they were significantly lagging the Cadmus Cyclones, despite Conner's best efforts. He and the opposing quarterback had eerily similar playing styles, but seemed that no matter what he did, his rival was just barely faster, just barely stronger, just barely more prepared to make the critical catches. Though they were much too far away to hear what the coach was telling him at halftime, it was obvious by his defensive posture that it was not favorable.

This wasn't that surprising, actually – Conner didn't complain about it a lot, but Artemis had gotten word from some of the other guys on the team that Coach Kent had had a chip in his shoulder especially for him since the very start of the year; no one was entirely sure why. Wally had once proposed a theory about people with the same last name automatically repelling each other like magnets, but the repulsion seemed one-sided, so they'd deemed it inadequate in the end.

"What do you think's going on down there?" Zatanna asked, leaning forward in her seat as if that would give her a better view.

"No idea, but here comes Lex Loser," said Wally, pointing – the Cyclones' coach was crossing the field towards Clark and Conner, looking for all the world like the Big Corporate Enemy in some clichéd sports film with his tailored suit and polished shoes. "The hell does _he _want?"

"Maybe to gloat?" Artemis speculated, hugging her coat tighter around herself.

"Here," said Wally suddenly. He pulled the scarf from around his neck and handed it to her – it was obviously something his mother (or perhaps his aunt Iris) had knitted for him, warm and fluffy and yellow and red.

"Dude, I don't want your pity scarf," she objected.

"Your face is ugly when it's all blue from the cold," he shot back.

"What? That's – "

" – just shut up and take the damn scarf, Artemis."

"Fine," she grumbled, and snatched it from his outstretched hand.

"You two are so cute when you start whispering sweet nothings," Dick grinned from Wally's other side.

He was immediately met with two middle fingers.

On the field below, Coach Kent had apparently walked off, leaving Conner alone with Coach Luthor, who was looking oddly familiar with their friend; he had his hand on Conner's shoulder and an earnest look on his face.

As the scarf's warmth gradually restored the feeling to her numbed neck and ears, Artemis's mind wandered. This wasn't the first time Wally had been mean-nice to her recently – two weeks ago he'd shared his umbrella with her on the way back from lecture, claiming that when her hair got wet it dripped all over the hallway, and just a few nights back he'd given her his leftover pizza when she'd missed dinner for a mentor session. "Beats hearing you bitch about being hungry all night," he'd said, as if he couldn't bring himself to be nice without a caveat. She supposed it beat the weirdly standoffish attitude he'd had towards her at the beginning of the year, but it was…mysterious. She was reminded of her conversation with Kaldur back in early October, when he'd claimed that Wally's teasing was his way of showing he cared…

"What the hell is going on down there?" Wally snapped, jolting her out of her thoughts. Artemis looked down at the field – Coach Luthor was attempting to give something to Conner, some kind of small object they couldn't see from the stands. Conner was clearly trying to define, but it seemed the older man had a death grip on his shoulder.

"Where the hell is Kent?" asked Artemis crossly.

"I don't think we need to worry, guys," said Dick, pointing.

Sure enough, a new figure was descending from the stands, heading for the two of them, and she clearly meant business – Dr. Lance, golden hair flowing out from beneath her winter hat. The security guards, headed by the Roy lookalike from earlier, didn't even try to block her passage onto the field.

"Someone's about to get served," Wally grinned, letting out a low whistle.

It was impossible to know just what the guidance counselor said to the coach, but whatever it was, it worked. Luthor's eyebrows shot up to what would have been his hairline and he took his hand off Conner's shoulder, slipping whatever he'd been holding back into his pocket before he turned and marched back across the field towards his own side. Dr. Lance turned to Conner, spoke a few words, clapped him on the shoulder, and left.

From a distance, Artemis saw Conner search the field, until his eyes gaze lighted on Megan – there were no kisses blown, no hearts drawn in the air, no "I love you"s mouthed, but his posture suddenly straightened, and with a nod, he headed back towards his team.

The Wolves slaughtered the Cyclones in the second half.

Borne on the shoulders of his teammates, Conner raised his fists to the air and acknowledged the screaming crowd with a giant smile, basking in the energy pulsing through the stadium. When at last they set him down, he was greeted enthusiastically first by Wolf, the team's oversized Husky mascot, then by Megan, who didn't have a chance to say a word before he'd swept her up in his arms and dipped her into a very stylishly executed kiss. In the stands, Wally wolf-whistled; the rest of them just laughed and cheered along with everyone else.

Knowing it would be a while before Conner escaped the clutches of fame and glory and hit the showers, the four of them headed to the nearby library café, where they all ordered hot chocolates (or in Zatanna's case, a double mocha) and settled in to wait.

"Man, the look on the other QB's face when he actually made that pass," Wally was laughing. "Wish I could've frozen that for all time."

"With this weather, you nearly could have," Artemis remarked, but she too was smiling – it had been a good game.

They met up with Conner and Megan a half an hour later, congratulated them both on the big win (after all, the cheerleaders had 'won' in a sense too) and headed back for the Cave in high spirits, still chattering excitedly about the game, about the crowd turnout, about the way Dr. Lance had apparently told Coach Luthor to "take those fucking steroid patches and shove them where the sun don't shine," then cited his soul as an example of such a place (Artemis's respect for Dr. Lance had instantaneously tripled).

By the time they arrived at the hall, they were in ridiculously high spirits – Dick was piggybacking on Conner, declaring them Freak the Mighty; Wally was demonstrating his "cheerleading moves" for Megan to her great amusement, and Artemis was bickering with Zatanna about which of the linebackers was cuter, Victor Stone or Mal Duncan. Just as they hit the stairs, Dick hopped off of Conner's back and raced up ahead of them, so that by the time they reached the third floor, the Beatles' "Birthday" was already blasting into the hall, where the balloons had indeed survived.

"Happy birthday, Conner!" Megan shouted over the din, placing a hand on her boyfriend's back; he looked thoroughly surprised, and inarguably moved.

"You might want to turn the music down," Zatanna suggested to Dick, yelling in his ear. "You know, before Grumpy comes out here and confiscates the cake."

"There's cake?" said Wally hopefully. Dick disappeared into their room to take Zee's advice while Megan opened up hers and Artemis's to fetch said cake. Conner, meanwhile, was reading the messages on his birthday poster and looking like he might cry, or hug someone.

"We should just offer him some," Artemis pointed out, stepping over to their RA's door and knocking. "You know, as a precautionary measure."

"We're voluntarily giving away cake?" Wally frowned in disapproval, just as Dick turned the music down from the room next door. Artemis could suddenly hear that Roy was playing music, too, although quieter. He was definitely there, he just wasn't answering. What a tool.

"Harper!" Artemis shouted through the door, knocking again.

"Someone should text Kaldur," Megan pointed out as she emerged with the cake and with party hats, which she began to distribute. "He helped bake the cake. He should get to help eat it, too."

Zatanna whipped out her phone obligingly and began to type.

Artemis pressed her ear to the door, wondering if maybe Roy had just left his speakers on, when the end of the song from Dick's room suddenly rendered it quiet enough that she could hear a second noise – the tell-tale creak of bedsprings, mixed with some badly-stifled gasps and groans.

"Oh my god," she murmured, eyes widening as a huge, shit-eating grin spread across her face. She turned back to the gang in the hallway and pointed to the door, reporting in her best stage whisper: "Someone's getting _lucky." _

Dick waggled his eyebrows. Megan turned bright red. Wally burst out laughing. Zee giggled, tucking her phone back in her pocket. Conner folded his arms over his chest uncomfortably. Kaldur's phone went off.

From inside Roy's room.

Artemis couldn't see her own expression, but she _felt_ the grin slide right off her face as that incriminatingly loud message alert sounded from the _wrong side of the door_. She looked to her hallmates, all of whom looked similarly flabbergasted, then everyone seemed to reach for their phone at once, just to check.

The results were the same – this time, the alert sounded six times as it received each of their texts in turn. They looked at each other, dead silent, frozen in place. Then suddenly they all dissolved into absolute stitches, because what the hell else could you do in that situation? Megan seemed ready to die of secondhand embarrassment, hiding her face behind her hands even as her shoulders shook with uncontrollable laughter, while Dick and Wally clutched each other to keep from falling over.

"Oh my god, he's going to kill us," Zee gasped, leaning against the wall nearest wall.

Artemis was actually on the floor, crying with laughter. Well _that _explained a lot.

Just as Megan knelt to cut the cake, clearly trying to pretend that nothing of this was happening, Roy's door swung open and he stepped into the hallway, mostly naked and absolutely, undeniably, unmistakably livid.

(Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Artemis mentally added Roy in Boxers to the list of things she wouldn't mind seeing again. The guy was…nice to look at.)

"Uh…cake?" Wally offered, breaking the silence as everyone stared at the RA with varying degrees of terror.

Roy trembled with rage. There just wasn't another way to describe it, Artemis decided. He reached up towards his head, then seemed to abruptly realize that wasn't _wearing _a hat (or much of anything else), and swore loudly. Without another word he stormed forward, tore the party hat from Wally's head, and threw it angrily to the floor before turning on his heel and storming back into his room. The door slammed shut. The group seemed to let out a collective breath.

"Good for you, Kaldur!" Artemis yelled helpfully, and was greeted by the sound of something striking the other side of the door and shattering. "And you too, Grumpy! Hope that wasn't anything valuable!"

"I'm never recovering from this," Dick announced, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

"I don't think any of us are," Wally groaned, accepting the slice of cake Megan had offered him.

"Happy birthday, Conner," said Zatanna, shaking her head and smiling. "I guess it's been a good day for all of us."

And indeed it was. Conner declared it the best birthday he'd ever had (though everyone had a sneaking suspicion that might not be an impressive claim, given his history). Dick said he hadn't had this much fun since the _last _time they'd pissed off Roy. And by the time Artemis went to sleep, having just brushed her teeth next to a disturbingly serene Kaldur, she was ready to declare it one of the best days of college thus far. Good friends, good food, a resounding sports win, something with which to blackmail their RA for the rest of the semester…yeah, things could have turned out a whole lot worse.


	6. Tests and Things Like Them

Sorry for the long wait on this one, as well as for the slightly more serious tone. Ironically enough, my own finals week delayed me, as well as some plan-changes for the overall structure of the story. I'd only planned to cover first semester but enough people seemed to want to see more that I fiddled around with some stuff, tried to make it work. Hope this chapter satisfies, in any case; thanks to everyone for the kind reviews. I really do appreciate it. :)

* * *

><p>Finals week struck with the vengeance of a thousand furies, but they took it down with teamwork.<p>

On Sunday, Artemis couldn't decide what was worse – Wally's constant muttering as he attempted to commit dozens of physics formulas and chemical structures to memory, Megan's hysterical 4 AM breakdowns, or the fact that Dick, who had more finals than any of them, wasn't even studying.

On Monday she decided that none of these things mattered because Fate Had Intervened, and Dick's "grandpa" Alfred had sent each and every one of them a care package, even Roy. Sprawled across her bed in a sea of brownies, textbooks, cookies and loose sheets of notebook paper, Artemis gorged herself on snacks and knowledge until she could take no more of either, then shoved everything onto the floor and went to sleep in her day clothes because why the hell not.

On Tuesday she had her first final exam – Introductory Psychology – which went surprisingly well, or at least better than she'd expected. She'd been able to answer every question completely, if not necessarily correctly, and she was pretty sure she'd aced the multiple choice section. Immediately afterwards, she celebrated with Conner, who was in a different division of the same course and thus had taken the same test. The two of them walked off campus and bought enormous, juicy burgers from the grill in town to mark the occasion, because sometimes cafeteria food just wasn't sufficiently festive.

On Wednesday she buckled down in preparation for her _two _Thursday finals, Advanced French and Music Theory. Naturally, it was the beginner-level course that was giving her the most trouble. She'd taken Music Theory on the assumption that it would be a relief from the stress of her harder classes like Political Science and French, but apparently the music department was so afraid of not being taken seriously that they made a point of making their intro-level courses nearly impossible to pass. Dick helped her through the worst of it, singing melodies for her to copy down for dictation practice and suggesting tricks for memorizing common chord progressions. By 10 PM she was feeling like she might not fail. Maybe.

That night, she took a study break with Kaldur and Zatanna up at the Summit, the three of them sitting on the edge of the rooftop and watching the moon rise on the other side of campus. Zee was due to leave the next afternoon while Artemis was in her French final, so this was their last chance to hang out for the next month – winter break lasted until mid-January at Beatus Portum. The thought of going that long without seeing her friends made Artemis's stomach twist with discontentment, but she didn't want to close the semester on such a mood-killing note, so she kept her mouth shut about it. Nobody else needed to know how much she was dreading going home.

"So what's up with you and Dick, huh?" she asked Zee instead, nudging her friend's side.

Zatanna flushed and made a face, folding her arms over her chest and rubbing her bare foot against her calf.

"We're…good?"

Artemis arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's not going to cut it, actually."

Sighing, Zee bit her lip and smiled hesitantly.

"Not totally sure what's going on there, to be honest," she confessed. "He's kind of…well…"

"Weird," Artemis filled in, and they both laughed. From Zatanna's other side, Kaldur smiled knowingly.

"Weird," Zatanna agreed with a nod. "He's a hard guy to keep up with. We'll see. It's nothing serious, at least for now."

"Fair enough," Artemis nodded, uncrossing her legs and letting them dangle off the edge of the rooftop. "Just practice safe sex, kiddies."

"Excuse me?" Zatanna spluttered with an indignant laugh, which Kaldur shared.

"Oh, don't think _you're _getting off easy either, Ariel," Artemis shot back, dropping Kaldur's Summit codename (they'd had to explain a few too many college things to him, replacing his less informed vocabulary like "thingamabob" and "dinglehopper" with appropriate terms like "rager" and "sexiling").

"I am not sure I understand," said Kaldur, tilting his head in confusion.

"Last weekend," said Artemis. "You and Grumpy. Explain."

"We had sex," said Kaldur plainly. Zee clapped a hand over her mouth, cheeks pinkening all over again.

"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that," Artemis laughed, rolling her eyes. "But since when? How did this happen? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Since last weekend; I asked; and because I did not realize it was my responsibility to inform you all of such things."

Artemis would have thought he was being snarky, but this was Kaldur, who probably wouldn't know snark if it bit him in the ass.

"Wait, hold up, what do you mean, you 'asked?'" said Zatanna.

"I am not sure I see where your confusion is coming from," Kaldur frowned.

Artemis gave him a look.

"You just straight up asked him if he wanted to bang you?"

"Not in such crude words, no."

"Well what the hell kind of words _did _you use, then?"

"I believe I pointed out that you had all gone to the football game, then asked him, 'would you like to have sex with me?'."

"…you're fucking with me."

"No. I am fucking with Roy."

"Whoa, okay, this conversation is officially _over,_" Zatanna announced, holding up her hands in self-defense.

"Does this mean Conner and Megan can use your room once in a while?" Artemis asked Kaldur hopefully. "Because I'd really love to go a week or so without having to move out on some random Tuesday night."

"I will keep you informed," Kaldur promised.

Their talk wandered back into less sensitive topics, to finals and the upcoming holidays and how everything seemed to have gone so fast thus far. Artemis kept silent on the topic of home travel, feeling that familiar weight settle in her stomach. Everyone else (well, everyone but Conner) seemed so excited to go home, to see their families, and while Artemis loved her family – really, she did – it just wasn't as simple as that for her. And after spending nearly four months here, growing so close to these people, getting accustomed to living under her own direction and making her own decisions, she wasn't sure she could go back to the life she led at home.

No, to the life she led in her _parents_' home. _This_ washome now.

Thursday arrived with its two finals. Dick turned up in the morning to wish her well on French, equipped with a ukulele and a song:

_My friend, her name is Artemis_

_But they should have called her Smartemis_

_With massive brains and a giant chest_

_She'll rock the shit right outta this test_

_So all you nervous testers, take heartemis:_

_The curve, it will be set by Artemis._

After convincing her classmates that no, she had no idea who the hell that kid was and was in no, she was in no way affiliated with him, Artemis settled in and took the exam. She was pretty sure she had not, in fact, set the curve, but it could have gone a lot worse.

In the afternoon, Music Theory happened (that was all Artemis was prepared to say about it), and she went in for the final push – Political Science, Friday afternoon. By the time she left the testing room, everyone else would be finished and packed out, with the exception of Wally, whose lab finals would take him all the way through to Friday evening, and Conner, who was apparently staying with Dr. Lance and Dean Queen over the break. While Artemis wasn't sure what person in their right mind would house Conner and Roy in the same small, enclosed space for an extended period of time, she was glad he'd found a place to stay, and eager to hear about the extent of the rage-induced property damage upon her return to campus in January.

The goodbyes came on one by one. On Thursday night, as Artemis and Wally occupied the study lounge to prepare for their respective finals, Megan quietly slipped in and wrapped her arms around her roommate from behind, leaving her suitcase in the entryway.

"I'll miss you," the cheerleader whispered in her ear, as if knowing that Artemis would be embarrassed by too public a display of affection. With a soft smile, Artemis turned around in her chair to return the hug.

"I'll miss you too," she said warmly. "Fly safe."

"Keep in touch," Megan countered, and Artemis gave a wry smile – generally speaking, keeping in touch was not her strong suit, but for some reason she felt sure she would this time. These people were worth it.

Kaldur knocked on her door just before bedtime, his things packed into a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Without a word, Artemis stepped forward and gave him a close hug, which he returned, both of them letting the embrace last a little longer than it normally would. Over the last four months he'd become like a big brother to her, and as luck would have it, he was the one occupant of the Cave who she was guaranteed to have _no _contact with over the break – apparently, his hometown was somehow off the grid, so he'd have no phone or computer with which to keep in touch. It was going to be a long 27 days without his quiet laugh and limitless patience.

"Have a good break," she told him, trying not to sound choked up as they pulled apart – she was _not _going to cry, dammit. "See you in like a month, I guess."

"In a month," he agreed, laying a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly. "I am sure it will be over before you realize."

Somehow, Artemis was not convinced.

Friday rolled around. Artemis went to breakfast with Wally, Dick and Conner, which turned out to be a little bit more brodom than she was equipped to handle at 8 AM; the three of them bickered endlessly about things like whether anyone outside Canada cared about hockey and the number of times you were allowed to wear pants before they were officially dirty (apparently, the answer depended on how many pairs of pants you owned in the first place). At the end of the meal, Dick gave each of them a hug and a grin and a wave and headed outside, where "Papa Alfred" was waiting to escort him to his private jet home – goodbye #4.

It didn't seem to get easier.

"You look awful," Wally said bluntly as Artemis crested the stairs, fresh from her Poli Sci final later that afternoon.

"Yeah well, you should see my exam," she replied, too tired to put any real spite into it.

He smiled faintly, balancing his textbooks against his hip so he could shut his door – the room beyond looked strangely empty with so many of Dick's things cleared off the desk and bed.

"Still on for airport carpool tonight?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "8:30, right?

"Yeah," he agreed. "Meet you downstairs then. Conner's driving. All right I'm off to my Astrophysics practical…wish me luck?"

She did.

He disappeared into the stairwell, leaving Artemis to realize with a vague sense of surprise that they'd just had a perfectly civil conversation, not one barb exchanged, unless you counted his opener, which had sounded more concerned than antagonistic.

…what was getting _into _them?

Packing up her things took less time than she'd expected. Maybe she just didn't have as much stuff as Megan, or maybe she was just subconsciously hoping this trip home wouldn't last long and packing light, but she had a suitcase packed by 6 PM and not much else to do, so she stepped out into the hall, and looked around. Instinct told her to go knock on Dick or Kaldur's door, to see if there were shenanigans to be had. Reality punched Instinct in the face and left Artemis feeling vaguely like she wanted to cry.

She ate dinner by herself – Conner was in his Lit final, Wally still at his lab practical – and spent it looking through the photos stored on her phone from the past semester. She'd have to print some of those out over break, just to have something to laugh at while she was away. Jade had left that tackboard behind. She could put them up there…

At 8:30 she let Conner carry her suitcase downstairs, more because she knew it was his way of trying to be sentimental about their impending goodbye than because it was heavy. Wally was waiting, leaning up against a wall and flipping frantically through his astronomy book to double-check some equation he was worried he'd flubbed, until Artemis snatched it away from him, looked him in the eye and told him to _stop being a nerd. _Then the three of them headed out, Conner driving Roy's borrowed car (Artemis realized with surprising regret that she hadn't managed to say goodbye to the RA, but they had flights to catch – time was up).

The drive to the airport was mostly quiet, Conner navigating through traffic while Wally and Artemis stared out their respective windows. When they arrived, Conner insisting on unloading their suitcases, then awkwardly hugged them both and mumbled something that might have been affectionate but could just as easily have been a death threat, for all he enunciated. Artemis chose to assume the nicer option and returned the hug, warning him that if he was too busy Skyping with Megan to talk to the rest of them, she would disown him. He promised he wouldn't be.

And then there were two – Artemis and Wally, awkwardly paused at the juncture between Terminals C and D, where their paths inevitably had to diverge, neither one apparently willing to speak first.

"So," Artemis said at last, slipping her hands into the kangaroo pocket of her Beatus Portum hoodie. "Don't stuff your face too much over the holidays, yeah?"

"Nah," said Wally, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Got cross-country records to break next semester. Watching my girlish figure and whatnot."

"Watch it, West," said Artemis, rolling her eyes, though despite herself she couldn't help but smile.

"I just said I was, didn't I?"

"Ugh," she groaned, trying not to laugh. "I need more than a month away from _you_."

"What, to come up with better comebacks?"

"Do you really want our last interaction for a month to be me punching you in the face?"

Wally grinned.

"You wouldn't wreck beauty like this."

"You're right. Who could tell the difference if I di – "

"Shut up and hug me, Artemis."

"Who has lame comebacks, now?" she asked. But even as she said it she was stepping forward, letting him pull her into a firm embrace that lasted a little longer than it should have – after a few seconds she started to pull away, only to have him tighten his grip, his chin pressing into the back of her shoulder.

"Nuh uh," he said petulantly. "Not done with this hug yet."

"You're insufferable," she muttered, but didn't pull away until finally he let her go, the two stepping apart just as the intercom announced first boarding call for Artemis's flight.

"Well, you can suffer me in a month," he shrugged, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans and offering her a surprisingly bittersweet smile.

"Guess so."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment, the only two stationary objects in a sea of people all hurrying to catch their flights. Then on some random impulse no doubt born from the stress of saying goodbye to all these people and taking final exams and worrying about going home (that's all it was, Artemis _swore_), she stepped forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, pulling away and grabbing her suitcase before it could get any weirder.

"Later, loser," she muttered, then turned quickly and walked away without another word.

She didn't look back, but as she pulled her suitcase along, she could picture him standing there in that tattered red hoodie and those scuffed-up sneakers with his messy red hair and his stupid freckles that big dopey grin that was always a little bit too wide for his face…

_Dammit, Crock, _she thought, internally slapping herself._ Watch yourself._

* * *

><p>Winter vacation, day one.<p>

Artemis arrived home to a warm embrace from her mother, whom she couldn't deny she had missed just a little, and home-cooked meals, which she didn't even try to deny she'd missed. She spent most of the day unpacking and sleeping, exhausted after the trauma of final exams, and her mother seemed to understand completely.

Her mother grew less understanding when on day five, Artemis was still spending most of every day asleep, taking naps less than three hours after waking up and using her infrequent waking time to lounge around the house, eat Christmas cookies a watch all the TV she'd loaded onto her laptop before coming home and Skyping with Zee when she could. No one else seemed to be on when she was.

"You are wasting your vacation, Artemis," said her mother sternly on the sixth day, wheeling herself into the living room where Artemis had just opened her computer. "Don't you want to see any of your high school friends while you're home?"

"High school friends?" Artemis repeated dubiously. "Were you paying attention during any of my high school years?"

Her mother listed off a few names, all of which belonged to people Artemis had no real desire to see again. High school had been spent dodging all of the awkward non-friendships that had lingered from the days when her dad had dictated her social life, back in elementary and middle school. Reliving any of that was about the last thing she wanted to do over break.

"Then tell me about your new friends," her mother pleaded. "Your friends from college. Just don't lie there all day wasting your life."

"They're unexplainable," Artemis deflected.

"Try," said Paula. "For me."

Artemis set her computer aside with a huffed breath, swinging her legs over the edge of the couch to fix her mother with a spiteful look.

"Megan is sweet, Conner is brooding, Kaldur is responsible, Dick is eccentric, Zee is stylish and Wally is a – a tool," she said, stumbling slightly over that last one.

"Language, Artemis," her mother scolded, brows knitting together.

"I'm eighteen," Artemis groaned. "I can say what I want. And trust me, if you met him, you'd say the same."

"I'm sure he is a perfectly nice boy."

"I'm sure he is too," said Artemis, folding her arms over her chest. "In an alternate universe."

"All this down time is making you irritable," Paula chastised. "You need to get out of the house. I don't want to see you back before dinner. And no more internet!"

"Mother!" Artemis gasped, affronted. "You can't – "

" – I absolutely can, and I am," Paula said firmly. She reached over and shut Artemis's laptop, picking it up and setting it down on her own lap. "You can have it back tomorrow. But today, you are going outside."

"It's freezing!"

"Your coat and boots are wherever you left them."

"Mom, seriously, you can't send me out there," Artemis begged. "I'll die of boredom if I don't die of hypothermia first."

"Your friend Richard lives in Gotham, right?" said Paula. "You could visit him if you're so worried about the cold."

"Are you kidding?" said Artemis. "Mother, that's _Dick Grayson _you're talking about_. _As in _the _Dick Grayson, the one who shows up on the front page of the local news sometimes next to Bruce Wayne? Trust me, he's got way cooler things to do than hang out with me."

"Then call someone else," said Paula, wheeling herself out of the room. "But I want you out of the house in five minutes. Dinner is at six. Call if you decide you're having too much fun and you want to stay out longer."

Artemis groaned, heading for her room to dig her winter clothes out of the mountain of laundry on her bedroom floor. She glanced at her corkboard as she stepped inside, where some choice pictures from the last semester were tacked up haphazardly – Megan and Zee painting Dick's fingernails at a sub-sober weekend sleepover, Wally fleeing from Roy with the older student's hat in hand, Conner obliviously asleep with his head on Kaldur's shoulder at the end of a long movie night.

Artemis let out a sigh. She really did miss them. And maybe…maybe Dick would have an hour free sometime.

_exiled from la casa, _she texted as she pulled her coat on. _how's being a child of the upper echelon?_

She wasn't really expecting a response, so when her phone vibrated only a few feet out the door, she was pleasantly surprised. The feeling only grew when she read Dick's reply:

_SOS received. deploying Waynemobile. eta 16.3 minutes. rendezvous at coordinates 47 N, 82 W._

Unable to wipe the grin from her face, Artemis peeled off a mitten to text back:

_you're a dork and i have no idea where that is._

The reply came in as she was winding her scarf around her neck, trying to escape the chill wind that was Gotham's wintertime trademark.

_coffeeshop at the corner of 6__th__ and amos, four blocks south and two east of your location. I may have made those coordinates up._

Artemis frowned as she walked.

_how the hell do you know my location?_

Less than a minute later she had her answer:

_skillz._

Of course.

She'd been standing in front of the coffeeshop for all of two minutes when a sleek black sedan pulled up in front and a familiar figure hopped out, bundled up in several layers and sporting a pair of unseasonable black sunglasses. He practically pranced up to her, a ridiculous grin stretched ear to ear.

"Do I get a hug?" Dick asked, opening his arms wide.

"Only because I'm freezing to death," Artemis told him, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she stepped forward and pulled him right off the ground, using her (very slightly) superior height to her advantage.

"Oof," Dick uttered as she let him down. "Missed you too. Now get in, we're going adventuring."

And adventure they did – apparently Dick's family (that is to say Bruce Wayne, and it took Artemis all day to get used to the fact that Dick just called him 'Bruce' without the 'Wayne' part) had a membership in Gotham's super swanky city center rec club, which included access to the super swanky city center ice skating rink. Artemis had never been ice skating before so it took most of the afternoon for her to get the hang of it, by which time her legs were numb and her elbows were bruised and her lips were blue and Dick was nearly dead of schadenfreudian laughter.

Next they got hot chocolate, got back in the car and went to go see a movie, sneaking in through the back alley entrance (that Artemis _had _done). As it turned out, WayneCorp owned the theater in the first place, so Dick would have waltzed in for free and been handed popcorn to boot had he chosen not to be a little shit, but since Dick was on general principle always a little shit, Artemis wasn't surprised by any of it. At a quarter to eight Artemis called her mother to say she wasn't coming home for dinner (much to her mother's feigned surprise, as dinner had been over for a while by then). Then they retreated to Dick's house, which was about the size of Mountain Hall (home to 200 students), and Papa Alfred provided them with and joined them for a fabulous feast of a supper.

Artemis arrived home around midnight, at which point only the porch light was on; her mother had apparently gone to bed.

The house, however, was not quite as quiet as it should have been.

"Hey, sis," said a familiar voice as Artemis stepped into her bedroom and flicked on the light. There sat Jade, cross-legged on her old bed surrounded by Artemis's college photos, that familiar Cheshire-cat grin on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Artemis snapped instantly, hiding how relieved she was to see her sister alive and (apparently) healthy.

"Good to see you too, Miss Arty," Jade laughed, using her sister's old nickname (Arty-miss flipped to become Miss Arty). "Just thought I'd pop in and check on my baby sister, see how things are going off at the big fancy university."

"Fine," growled Artemis, marching across the room to reach for her photos, but Jade caught her wrist.

"I was looking at those," the older girl reprimanded. She picked one up, a shot from early in the year of Roy berating the mud-covered duo of Wally and Dick, and tapped a manicured finger against the RA's face. "This one's cute, what's his name?"

"None of your business," said Artemis, snatching it away.

"Touchy, touchy," Jade smirked. "I'm doing well, by the way, thanks for asking."

"Tell Mom," Artemis said, flopping down onto the bed and starting to gather the photos towards herself. This time, Jade didn't stop her. "She's the one worried sick about you."

"Heart-wrenching," Jade deadpanned.

"I'm serious," Artemis frowned. "As a Christmas gift or something. Just call her and tell her you're okay."

"That's a little sentimental for this family, don't you think?"

"I'll give you his phone number," Artemis bargained, holding up another photo of Roy, this time from Halloween, in his bloodied Abraham Lincoln costume.

Jade plucked the photo from Artemis's hands, staring at it contemplatively for a moment.

"Deal," she said at last. "But I'm not calling until Christmas."

"Fine," Artemis agreed, extending her pinky and entwining it with her sister's to seal the deal, before she reached for her phone to retrieve Roy's number. As untrustworthy as Jade had turned out to be, pinky promises were one thing sacred to their sisterhood – Artemis knew she'd keep to their arrangement. As for Roy, well…he could handle her.

Probably.

* * *

><p>Christmas came and went. Jade called, as promised, making their mother much happier than any physical gift could have, though Artemis did try – she got her a warm, cozy Beatus Portum sweatshirt, a snazzy new pair of wheelchair gloves so she could "roll like a baller," and a certificate for five grouch-free days (which coming from Artemis, was a present indeed). In return, she received a three-cup French press (coffee had turned out to be a college essential), a pack of tickets to the nearest movie theater, and inexplicably, a pair of roller blades (thanks, Mom).<p>

Four other gifts arrived around Christmas – first, a heartfelt letter from Megan detailing the many ways she respected, admired and loved Artemis, which Artemis definitely _didn't _cry over, definitely _didn't _slip into the locked drawer under her bed where she kept the things she wanted to keep forever, especially because she was pretty sure Megan had written one to everyone on the hall. Second was a beautifully handcrafted hair clip from Kaldur, wrapped in brown paper and shipped from a post office she was pretty sure was nowhere near his house, because his community didn't get mail; she guessed it was some kind of traditional craft from his hometown. Third was an unmarked package from her father that burned a delightful yellow in the fireplace as it withered into ash, and fourth was a thick envelope from Dick:

_Your mission, should you choose to accept it…_ the accompanying letter began, and encased was thirty dollars.

Artemis chose to accept it.

* * *

><p>The days slid into one another. Dick came by every other day or so and the two of them would gallivant around the city or Skype the others, usually Wally or Zatanna, or when it finally snowed, they would build grotesque snowmen straight out of Calvin and Hobbes on the stately grounds of Wayne Manor until Papa Alfred demanded they come inside and drink hot chocolate. On the days when Dick had society business (or other friends – Artemis did reluctantly recognize that unlike her, he had them), Artemis helped out her mother around the house or puttered around the internet or brainstormed adventures to have when the whole gang was back together again, at school.<p>

Two days before New Year's, an engraved invitation arrived in the mail, cordially requesting the presence of both Artemis and her mother at the annual Wayne Estate Charity Ball. Scrawled at the bottom was a note from Dick:

"Misery loves company."

And that was how she ended up wheeling her mother up the ramp to the exorbitantly ritzy yet tastefully decorated ballroom of the Wayne Mansion on New Year's Eve, both dressed in elegant gowns Mr. Wayne himself had provided for the evening (formal dress wasn't something the Crocks did particularly well). Alfred greeted them, looking austere and impeccably groomed as ever, and it only took seven minutes of dodging aggressive hors d'oeuvres caterers for Artemis to locate Dick.

"'Scuse me," he told his audience of obviously smitten middle-aged ladies, ducking between two to take Artemis's arm and sweep away from the crowd.

"Graceful," she told him.

"As always," he grinned, then looked her up and down. "You look…female."

"Thanks," she said, rolling her eyes. "I try."

"Glad you're here," he said, snagging a glass of champagne off a passing tray and placing it in her hands. "The next three hours should suck a little less now."

"It's barely past eight," Artemis pointed out. She took an experimental sip of the champagne; the stuff actually tasted pretty good when it didn't come at three dollars a bottle. "Hate to break it to you, but we have a solid four hours until New Year's."

"Yeah, but Bruce'll let us duck out at eleven thirty if I put in the prerequisite face time now," said Dick, adjusting his tie. "Come help me make the rounds."

"The rounds?"

"Talking to the media and all of Bruce's dumb corporate society buddies," Dick explained as they descended the steps back towards the main ballroom. "Just smile, look pretty and say lots of ambiguous things about my sexuality. Keep 'em guessing, it's their favorite game."

"You're the boss," said Artemis with a raised eyebrow, and followed him into the wolves' den.

Watching Dick talk to the press was a little like watching a sadistic older sibling play keep-away with a younger one – as they peppered him with questions and provocations, trying to wheedle a publishable reaction out of him, he simply basked in the attention and danced his way around the traps they laid, talking teasingly close to certain topics (whether or not he would someday assume control of WayneCorp, if he had a special someone he intended to approach at midnight, tidbits about Bruce's love life), before entirely changing the topic. For her part, Artemis managed to navigate the few queries they threw at her ("I'm a school friend of Dick's," "yes, he's been adjusting just fine," "no, I have no idea why he's like that, and neither does anyone else at Beatus Portum").

Probably the most intimidating part of her evening was the moment when Bruce Wayne himself swept in to rescue her from an older businessman who had been chatting her up and eyeing her cleavage. Wayne was a tall man, impressively built, with a square jaw and a stern gaze, though there was a hint of Dick's twinkle in his eyes, hinting that this socialite identity was just one of many masks he wore.

"Artemis, I assume," he said, flagging down a champagne-bearer to top off her glass. Somehow, Artemis got the feeling he wasn't "assuming" anything, that he knew exactly who she was, and probably a whole lot more.

"Er," she mumbled, a little starstruck. "Yes."

"I hope you're not too bored," he said, briefly slipping an arm around her shoulder to pose for a passing photographer. "Your mother seems to be enjoying herself, at least."

Artemis followed his gaze to where her mother sat at the edge of the ballroom floor, chatting and laughing in a circle of women around her age.

"Yeah," Artemis nodded. "Yeah, she does. Um…thanks for…you know. This. And…college."

_Great, Crock. Make yourself a stammering idiot in front of the most powerful man in Gotham._

"Don't mention it," he told her. "Dick tells me you're making the most of it."

"I uh, I try," said Artemis, wondering exactly what Dick had told him.

"You must be missing all your friends," said Bruce sympathetically, pulling far more than his weight in the conversation.

"A little, yeah," Artemis replied. Understatement of the year.

"Well," he said, clapping her on the back. "I'm sure you'll see them sooner than you think."

And with a wink that she had _not _expected from a man that serious, he was gone, slipped into the crowd to continue his meet-and-greet.

The evening wore on – Artemis wandered the room, sampling the many delectable appetizers on offer and downing more champagne, made small talk with society ladies and businessmen and Dick's high school friend Barbara, who turned out to be pretty damn awesome (they exchanged numbers and agreed to get coffee sometime). Finally, at 11:30, Artemis tracked down Dick, who was busy charming the pants off of a group of hot moms by making balloon animals for their young children.

"Sometimes I wonder if you were secretly raised in a circus," she told him, and was surprised when he responded with no quip, just an oddly pained smile.

"Don't worry about it," he told her when she asked, and handed off the last animal to a little boy in mismatched dress socks. "Come on, let's blow this popsicle stand."

"I don't think I've ever heard that expression, but I'm assuming it means we get to leave," said Artemis hopefully. She was itching to get out of her heels.

"Correctamundo," Dick grinned, and led her off into a side corridor, where he flipped open a panel in the wall, glanced around to make sure no one else was watching, and pressed his palm onto some kind of scanner. With a beep, a panel in the wall slid out and revealed a bare passageway, fluorescent lights flickering to life to light their way.

"I can't decide if this is awesome or incredibly sketchy," Artemis remarked, removing her shoes and following Dick into the gently-sloping hallway. The wall slid shut behind them, making her jump slightly, but Dick seemed to think it was all perfectly normal, so she let him lead the way. "Where are we going?"

"Basement rec suite," said Dick. "Got a New Year's surprise for you."

"You're not going to get all weird and try to kiss me, right?" Artemis asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Wasn't planning on it," said Dick, reaching a door and pressing his palm onto another scanner panel. "Can't promise anything about the rest of them, though."

"Them?" Artemis had just asked, when suddenly the door swung open and several very familiar voices drifted into the passageway, making her heart leap with disbelieving excitement.

"You little fucker!"

"Oh sorry, were you using that life?"

"I was going easy on you, West, don't get any– "

"Oh just shut up and play, both of you."

"I believe we have company, my friends."

By the time Artemis stepped into the room, she was already being mobbed – Megan and Zatanna had practically thrown themselves upon her, with Kaldur and (unexpectedly) Conner not far behind, practically crushing her in a tight hug that she never wanted to end. Behind them, Roy and Wally hung back, their video game paused for the occasion.

"What, no love for me?" Dick pouted.

"You let us in, Trust Fund," Zee pointed out, before she stepped over and kissed him on the cheek anyway. "But you clean up nice."

As Megan, Conner and Kaldur finally pulled back, Wally stepped forward to grab a handful out of popcorn out of the bowl on the counter and looked Artemis up and down.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked, taking in the dress and the hair and the makeup.

"You look very lovely," Kaldur cut in, giving Wally a stern look.

"Yeah well I'd kill for a sweatshirt and jeans right now," Artemis said, suddenly self-conscious – except for her and Dick, everyone else was wearing what they always did.

"Your mom packed you a change of clothes," said Dick, flopping down onto the couch and stealing Wally's Gamecube controller. "Since we're all staying over and all. If you want to change now, you could."

"Of course she did," Artemis mused, suddenly processing the whole thing – _they were all there, _even Roy. There was Zee, sharp-tongued and glamorous, there was Kaldur, calm and cool-eyed and watching them all affectionately, there was Roy, trying his best to look grouchy but failing, there were Megan and Conner, inseparable as ever, there was Wally, goofy-grinned and obnoxious, and there was Dick, who'd brought them all here, brought them all together. The gang was back, and just in time for New Year's. Artemis was suddenly so happy, she felt like she could kiss someone.

Instead, she settled for grabbing the popcorn bowl off the counter.

"So we have twenty minutes to midnight," she said, looking around at all of them. "You all had better explain to me how you managed to plan this little soiree behind my back before then."

"Negatory," Dick grinned. "I think we have a very important gift exchange to execute before then, don't you think?"

"Of course," Zatanna agreed with a grin, and Artemis was confused just long enough to notice that Roy also seemed not to know what was going on, at which point it clicked – Dick's Christmas mission.

"I didn't bring – " she began, but Dick cut her off.

"Your mom brought it," he said, pointing to the counter, where a paper bag stood.

"I don't know how I feel about you talking to my mother behind my back," said Artemis, at which Dick just waggled his eyebrows.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Roy asked, looking highly suspicious as the others all got up and retrieved packages from various corners of the room. "No one told me we were doing presents."

"That's because they're all for you," Zatanna said with a grin.

"What?"

"You've just been such a wonderful RA," Dick cooed, looking (if possible) trollier than ever as he withdrew a box from a compartment in the couch footrest. "We all wanted to show our gratitude somehow."

"I don't like this," said Roy, eyes darting back and forth as they advanced on him. "Cut it out, guys, or I'll get maintenance to cut your electricity."

"We're all on the same circuit breaker," said Wally. "But nice try."

"Merry Christmas, Grumpy," Artemis grinned, passing over her wrapped package. "You can start with mine."

He narrowed his eyes at her but finally peeled back the wrapping paper as the other stood around, watching with expectant smiles. It was a hat, a rainbow-partitioned beanie with a little helicopter on the top.

"Uh…thanks?"

"No problem," Artemis smirked, enjoying his confusion.

"Mine next," Megan urged, handing him her gift.

He opened it obediently. It was another hat, hand-knitted with obvious care, the letters "RA" in red wool against black, and the whole thing a little lopsided. Once again, Roy's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"We never joke," said Wally gravely, passing along his box, which was wrapped in printed webcomics (of course). "But you might, after you open this."

It was a jester's cap. At that point, Roy attempted to flat-out refuse to open any more packages, but Zatanna managed to force one into his hands, and almost out of spite he ripped it open to find a stylish fedora, a sleek silk band around its diameter. He seemed not to know Zatanna quite well enough to be as rude to her as he was to everyone else, so he grudgingly consented to put it on, at which point Conner tossed him the next package.

"Football team helped me find this one."

With a scathing look, Roy opened the box – a beer cap, cupholders for earflaps.

"You're all _so _clever," he drawled, chucking it aside and holding out his hand to Dick expectantly. "Let's get this over with."

Dick grinned and passed over his box, which contained a Mad Hatter cap, which Artemis couldn't help thinking was particularly appropriate – sometimes she felt like Alice, fallen down the rabbit-hole into the Wonderland of college life, and Dick was the madman leading her hither and thither through all the chaos.

"Well now that that's done," Roy began, but he was cut off by a tap on his shoulder as Kaldur passed him a box, smaller than all the others, and more carefully wrapped. Artemis thought she saw Dick throw Kaldur a wink, but she couldn't be sure; sometimes Dick was just twitchy like that. Roy, for his part, twisted around on the couch to give Kaldur (standing behind him) a look.

"Et tu, Kaldur?" he entreated. "Et tu?"

"Just man up and open it," Artemis laughed, leaning against the wall.

Roy did.

It was a tiara, glittery and silver, and set with rhinestones. Artemis was instantly forced to reconsider all of her assumptions about Kaldur and snark as Roy turned around, face purpling with rage while the younger man just _stood there, _expression perfectly neutral.

"Is there a problem, my friend?"

"…you…"

"Look at that, one minute to midnight!" Dick interrupted jovially, clapping his hands together. "Someone turn on the TV and we'll all count down together!"

Megan hurried to obey as Roy threw down the tiara in a fit of pique and vaulted over the back of the couch to tear off after Kaldur, who had managed to get a split-second jump on the upperclassman. Serene as ever, Dick strolled over to the counter and poured out six glasses of champagne, distributing them around the rest of them, who proceeded to count down with the Times Square crowd on the TV.

10…9…8…

Conner slipped an arm around Megan's waist, pulling her close against him as they watched the screen together.

7…6…5…

Dick waggled his eyebrows across the room at Zatanna, who rolled her eyes affectionately and moved to stand by him, lightly bumping her hips sideways against his and linking her arm with his.

4…3…2…

Artemis pretended not to notice as Wally walked up behind her oh-so-casually, keeping her eyes riveted on the screen as the ball dropped lower and lower…

1…

"Happy New Year!" Dick crowed, raising his glass.

"Happy New Year," the rest of them echoed, and suddenly Artemis found herself between two kissing couples, though Megan and Conner seemed much more serious about it than Dick and Zatanna, who mostly seemed to be along for the ride.

"Hey," said Wally, cocking an eyebrow at her as he downed his champagne in one go and set the glass aside. "We're gonna say I'm really drunk right now, okay?"

"You're not really drunk," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but we're gonna say I am."

And before she could open her mouth to retort again, he'd placed a hand on the small of her back, pulled her close and kissed her with surprising tenderness, his fingertips carding through her hair as his mouth moved softly against hers. After a moment, she gave in to it and shut her eyes, hands slipping around his neck. It wasn't perfect: she was still holding her champagne glass, and his lips were inexplicably trembling against hers like he was nervous, but for a science dweeb with a penchant for isotope-related pick-up lines, he was actually quite a good kisser. She'd had worse, to be sure.

They parted a moment later, and Artemis was surprised (or perhaps not surprised at all) to realize she was disappointed when they did. Behind them, Dick and Zee had already gone back to laughing and joking, while Conner and Megan were having some kind of whispered conversation; neither pair seemed to be paying Wally and Artemis the slightest bit of attention, or was at least courteous enough to pretend they weren't.

"So," said Artemis, sipping at her glass; Wally looked like he was regretting having finished his. "How would you like to say you were really drunk for all of New Year's?"

He looked up, that familiar crafty smirk beginning to tug at his lips again.

"I think it'd be plausible, with my track record," he said. "You know. Kid Flask and all."

"Great," she nodded, grabbing his hand and dragging him off down the nearest corridor, and snagging an unopened bottle of champagne on the way out. Hey, it wasn't like Wayne Manor was short on them. "Let's go break some resolutions."

He grinned, following after her without complaint.

"I can think of worse ways to ring in the New Year."


	7. Roll With It

AN: I'd like to apologize for the ridiculous delay on this chapter - I've had difficulty writing since the school year ended and I broke up with my girlfriend, but I managed to grind this out. It's ridiculously long, so I'm sorry about that too.

Also, just because several people asked: "Beatus Portum" is Latin for "Happy Harbor."

* * *

><p>"I'm home!" Artemis called into the hallway, dumping her duffel on the floor without much ceremony.<p>

And it was true. Okay, so technically, the Cave wasn't home; it was the place she'd been randomly assigned to live for a year, but it felt a hell of a lot more like home than Gotham, which she'd left six blessed hours ago with a hug to her mother and a feeble promise to stay in touch.

"Welcome back," Conner greeted, popping his head out of his doorway. "Good trip?"

"It ended here, so I'm going to say yes," Artemis smiled, stepping forward to drag the football star into a hug, to his obvious surprise. "I missed you, you big lump of unnecessary muscles and daddy issues. How've you been?"

"What?" Conner balked, carefully extracting himself from her embrace. "Lump of what?"

"Never mind," she said, just happy to see him. "I don't actually care. Where's your other half?"

"Not here yet," said Conner. "I think you're the first, actually."

"Well that's lame," Artemis frowned. "You survive vacation with Grumpy okay?"

"Yeah, he was fine," said Conner, tucking his hands into his pockets. "You survive with…uh…whoever?"

"I did," Artemis nodded, feeling no need to fill in his blanks.

Conner shifted from one foot to the other.

"And uh, you and Wally?"

"Me and Wally what?" she asked, and promptly disappeared into her room.

* * *

><p>The others trickled in over the course of the afternoon.<p>

Megan showed up around lunchtime; Artemis knew it by the sudden scrape of Conner's desk chair as he grabbed his phone and bolted for the stairs, taking them four in a single bound. Nothing got him hustling like that but football or his girlfriend, and Artemis had a feeling she knew which it was. Biting back a smile, she rose from her desk and went out to the hallway to greet her roommate, whose hair was dusted with snow, her cheeks a lovely pink from the New England chill, and they shared a warm hug as Conner moved Megan's many bags back into their room.

Around three, Kaldur and Dick arrived, having shared a cab from the train station. The younger of the two was busy berating the elder about his lack of a coat – cold, apparently, was not an issue to Kaldur, and Dick was insisting that you were not allowed to wear a tee shirt and jeans in 20-degree weather and not freeze to death, while Kaldur tolerated the righteous indignation with a quiet, amused smile, his arms bare of sleeves and goosebumps both.

"Dick, leave Kaldur alone and give me a hug, you little squirt," Artemis interrupted as they crested the stairs, holding out her arms.

Glancing up, Dick broke into a matching grin and obliged, running forward and practically throwing himself through the air so that she was forced to take his weight. She staggered but managed to stay upright, letting out a dramatic groan.

"Get off me, you little monkey," she said.

"I missed you too," he said, clinging to her.

"I saw you three days ago."

"And?"

"Ugh, never mind. Kaldur, get him off me so I can hug you too."

"Of course," said Kaldur graciously, and stepped forward to pry Dick off Artemis's shoulders. When he had safely set the younger boy down on the floor, he turned back to Artemis and obliged, enfolding her in a surprisingly firm hug that let her know that despite his outward stoicism, he was in fact very happy to see her.

"Missed you too," she smiled, lowering her voice so that only he could hear.

By the time Wally arrived shortly after dinner, the gang had already set their evening plans in motion – they'd located Zee, kidnapped her back to the Cave, and brought her up to the Summit, where Megan had prepared a sizeable cauldron of hot chocolate under the snow-laden tarp. Dick had provided the cream liqueur, courtesy of Papa Alfred. It was to be a reunion party of sorts, the six of them standing around in the snow, swapping vacation stories and drinking very mildly alcoholic hot cocoa.

Wally's appearance in the doorway was greeted by three things – first, a rousing cheer, second, an excited yelp from Dick, who promptly tackled his roommate to the ground and stuffed a handful of snow down his shirt, and third, a steaming mug of hot chocolate from Artemis, who extended a hand to help him up and handed it to him with an affectionate "hey, you."

"Hey you yourself," he grinned back, pulling Dick to his feet and raising his mug to the rest of the gang. "Cheers, everyone."

"Cheers," they echoed, and the reunion was complete at last.

Well, almost. Just as Zatanna launched into her story about creating a life-sized replica of herself to hide the fact that she'd snuck out of the house to attend a girlfriend's Christmas party, the door to the maintenance stairwell burst open and out stormed Roy, looking especially ridiculous with a floppy winter hat covering his red hair.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded, looking around at the seven of them, and at the furniture that was definitely not supposed to be on the rooftop.

"Inception," Dick responded promptly. "You're actually dreaming. Go back inside, you'll catch brain pneumonia."

"Don't get smart with me now, Grayson," Roy warned.

"Well one of us has to be, and judging from your dumbass question, it's not gonna be you, so…"

"Dick," Artemis cut him off, raising an eyebrow. "How about we don't?"

"We are having a welcome back celebration," Kaldur broke in. "You are welcome to join us."

Roy scowled.

"Where the hell is your coat?"

"I do not – "

" – we have hot chocolate," Megan interrupted sweetly, producing a spare mug from her kitchen bin. "Would you like some?"

"Is that _liquor?"_ Roy asked, brow furrowing as he stepped over to pick up the bottle.

"Yeah, and damn good liquor at that," Dick muttered. He made a face at the RA behind his back, and Artemis elbowed him sharply in the side.

"There are just so many violations of school code going on here," Roy mused, looking over the bottle in his hands. "I don't even know where to begin."

"You could begin by putting some of that in your hot chocolate," Zee suggested.

"Then you could stay up here with us while you drink it," Conner continued.

"And you could end by admitting you love us way too much to write us up," Wally finished with a winning grin. "Am I right, or am I right?"

"You're right," chorused Dick, Megan and Artemis.

Roy looked around at them, at Megan, hands still outstretched to offer him a warm mug, at Conner, with whom he'd just shared a house for a month, at Wally, that doofy grin still plastered to his face. Setting the bottle back down, he frowned deeply.

"Fine," he relented, pouring a not-so-modest amount of the cream liqueur into the mug he'd finally accepted. "But just this once."

"Sure, Roy," said Artemis, arching a skeptical eyebrow. "Whatever you say."

And just like that, the party resumed. Roy went to go stand beside Kaldur, muttered something into his ear that made the younger boy smile knowingly, and Dick implored Zee to continue her story, which the other girl did. The eight of them talked and laughed and caught up until the moonlight was gleaming off every plane of the snow-covered campus and Megan was nodding off on Conner's shoulder, his protective arm wrapped securely around her shoulders.

They cleaned up, Wally and Artemis killing off the hot cocoa so they could dismantle the cauldron and re-pack it into Megan's bin, Zee and Kaldur collecting everyone's mugs so they could wash them all in one batch. Down the stairs they went, Conner carrying his now-sleeping girlfriend and the others carrying everything else, until the warmth of the Cave washed over them and they said their good-nights and dispersed, leaving Artemis to marvel at the fact that Roy had kept his hat on all evening long.

* * *

><p>"Hey, you with the ponytail!" a voice called out as Artemis passed the smaller of Beatus Portum's two gymnasiums. She was on the way back from course registration, which had gone reasonably well – she'd gotten into three of the four classes she'd hoped to, and for the fourth had settled for an international relations class she knew Megan and Kaldur we both hoping to take. Always good to have company.<p>

The person who had called out to her was a girl around her own age, slim and dark-skinned and sporting some serious ear piercings. Artemis was instantly jealous of her big brown coat, which looked far warmer than her own meager windbreaker.

"Yeah?" she said, stuffing her hands further into her pockets in an attempt to force some life back into them. "You talking to me?"

"Uh huh," the girl nodded, hurrying down the gym stairs towards Artemis. "Seen ya around, weren't you the one who punched some baseball team guy in the face at the big formal dance last November?"

"Er," said Artemis. "Yeah, that was me."

What could she say? He'd called Zatanna a nasty name. Kid had had it coming.

"I like your style," said the other girl, flashing a smile. "We could use someone like you on the Birds of Prey."

"Birds of Prey?" Artemis echoed confusedly.

"The Beatus Portum roller derby team."

"We have a roller derby team?"

"Girl, you're joking, right?"

"Uh…"

The other girl shook her head in incredulous disappointment.

"We've only been top of the flat-track league for three seasons running, that's all," she said. "But we lost our second-best jammer to a skiing accident over winter break, so we could use a new #2. You look like a girl who can take a hit and dish some out, too."

"I can't skate," said Artemis, although roller derby, with its particular combination of fierce aggression, unconventional athleticism and countercultural swag did appeal to her.

"Doesn't matter," said the other girl. "Skating's the easy part. Just show up to practice and we'll have you up and around that track before you know it. Whadd'ya say?"

"A new second best, huh?" Artemis asked with a half-smile. "Who's in the top spot, then?"

The girl grinned.

"They don't call me Rocket for nothin'."

"Your name is Rocket?"

"My derby name," the other girl laughed easily, pulling her collar up to protect against the chill, then extending her hand to Artemis. "Real name's Raquel. Raquel Ervin."

Reluctantly withdrawing her hand from the safety of her pocket, Artemis accepted the handshake.

"Artemis Crock."

"Nice to meetcha, Artemis," Raquel grinned. "Practice is Wednesday nights at eight, bouts are Saturday afternoons if we travel, Saturday evenings if it's a home game. It's a lot of bruises but a lot of fun. You in?"

"I'll think about it," Artemis promised, turning to head back to the Cave. From behind her, Raquel's voice called out one last time:

"See ya there, then."

* * *

><p>"Roller derby?" asked Wally later that evening, squinting at her suspiciously and playing with the straw of his jumbo milkshake. "Isn't that a lesbian sport?"<p>

"Don't make me whup you, West," Artemis threatened. They were getting a late-night snack in the campus café, or rather Wally was eating the equivalent of three late-night meals in the campus café, and Artemis was watching him and trying to decide if disgust or admiration was a more appropriate reaction.

"Hey, don't get me wrong, I'd totally watch your games either way," he grinned. Down went a handful of fries. "Just wondering if I should be worried about…y'know. Competition."

"Let me get this straight," said Artemis. "I want to join a roller derby team, so you're worried I'm going to stop hooking up with you and run off with a hot lesbian instead."

"Yyyup," said Wally through a mouth full of half-chewed hamburger.

She arched one eyebrow.

"This conversation is starting to make that look like a pretty good plan, actually."

Wiping his mouth on his sleeve, Wally sat back in his chair and grinned easily as he put his feet up on the booth next to her.

"Just send me a postcard when you go, beautiful."

* * *

><p>Three days and one overnight shipping bill later, Artemis packed the roller skates her mother had given her for Christmas into a duffel bag and made her way over to the gym, where Raquel looked pleased (and not at all surprised) to see her.<p>

"Glad you made it," she said, clapping her on the shoulder none too gently. "Skate up and we'll see if you were made to fly."

Artemis, apparently, was not made to fly. While her teammates very kindly assured her that it took everyone a while to get the hang of the world on wheels, she was more than a little embarrassed to go almost an entire hour before successfully completing a slow, upright lap of the track, even as they whizzed around her on either side, perfect pictures of grace and ease.

"It's all right," one assured her at the end of practice, a stunning redhead with orangeish skin that somehow didn't look like a bad spray tan. What was her name? Carrie? Torrie? Kory? Something like that. "It took me many weeks and many falls to work up to speed. Would you like some ice?"

"No thanks," said Artemis, gritting her teeth as she nursed her various bruises. Though they had pads for the knees and elbows, it seemed she'd invented some more creative ways to fall. "I'll just go outside, should have the same effect, right?"

Kory laughed indulgently.

"Artemis!" called Raquel from the other end of the gym. "Before you go!"

"Yeah?" Artemis called back, shouldering her duffel. "Regretting your decision to invite me onto the team already?"

"No," the other girl laughed, skating up to her and skidding to an effortless halt. "You get back up faster than anyone we got. Just a reminder that you're gonna need a derby name."

"Right," said Artemis. "What exactly are the parameters for a derby name?"

"No hard and fast rules," Raquel shrugged. "But uh, sassy, sexy, intimidating. That's about it. Kara over there, she'd tough as nails, so we call her the Girl of Steel. Raven? She's a little scary, little creepy, little hard to figure out, so she goes by Demonika. It's funny 'cause it's also her moniker…get it?"

Artemis blinked.

"Um. No."

Raquel, still busy chuckling at her own joke, didn't notice.

"Sometimes Kory acts like she's from another planet so we call her Starmageddon," she continued. "Anyway you get the idea. Don't sweat it too much. Just so you know, our first scrimmage is the next weekend, first bout's the weekend after that. You uh, might wanna put in some time on the skates before then."

"I know I suck," Artemis said flatly. "You don't need to sugarcoat it."

"You kinda do," Raquel admitted with a grin. "But it's okay. You're tough, you're gutsy, you're gonna learn fast. Seeya next week, Artemis."

And she skated off, leaving Artemis to shoulder her duffel and head for home.

_IR homework? _she texted Kaldur as she made her way through the snow. It was the first week of classes so the workload wasn't yet crippling, but Artemis preferred to work with her friends when she could, and she and Kaldur had ended up in the same international relations class after all. It was worth asking.

_I have finished it, _came his unsurprising answer a moment later. _But I would be happy to assist you if you run into any difficulties._

Upon arriving at the Cave, though, Artemis's attempt to take Kaldur up on his offer was abruptly postponed when her knock was answered not by her helpful friend but by her livid RA. What Roy had been doing in Kaldur's room, Artemis could only guess, but he was clearly expecting her, and clearly not happy.

"A word, if you don't mind," he said, fingers wrapping around her wrist as he dragged her away from the doorway and towards his own room. It would have been scary, had she not been acutely aware of what a big softie he was underneath the tough guy shtick.

"Um, was I interrupting something?" she asked as he fumbled with his keys. "I can ask him about the homework later if that's better for – "

" – shut it, blondie," Roy interrupted. At last, he managed to get the key into the lock and opened the door, ushering her into his room and closing the door behind them. "Unless you'd like to explain _this." _

And he thrust his phone in her face. On it was displayed a rather one-sided conversation from an unknown number, though Artemis could make an educated guess.

_Hey, handsome, _read the opener. _Love the hair. Does the carpet match the drapes?_

_Fuck off, Grayson,_ was Roy's response, at which Artemis had to suppress a snort.

_Who's Grayson? _asked the mystery number, half a day later. _Your boyfriend? ;)_

Roy had apparently declined to respond, so the next several were all from his conversation partner, spaced over several days. Artemis could practically see Jade's smirk dripping between each word.

_Sensitive subject, I take it. Let's change topics. What are you wearing?_

_You sent me nothing, gorgeous, so I have to assume you're naked…_

_Trying the mysterious angle. Mmm, I like it._

_How about a pic, lover boy? Show me yours and I'll show you mine._

To which Roy had responded with a picture of his middle finger, and that was the most recent message in the exchange.

"What makes you think I have anything to do with this?" Artemis asked, folding her arms over her chest and trying not to look too amused.

"Because this morning, I got a phone call," Roy replied peevishly. "And when I got around to asking how she got this num – "

" – when you got around to it?" Artemis asked, arching an eyebrow. "How long did this conversation last, anyway?"

"None of your business," Roy snapped. "When I asked how she got this number, she said _you _told her, and furthermore that you said we'd be 'perfect for each other' and have 'adorable Asian ginger babies,' along with a lot of other things I can't even repeat in polite company."

"Believe me, I said almost none of those things," said Artemis. "And since when do you and I qualify as polite company?"

"We – ugh, just get straight with me, Crock. Did you give this psycho bitch my number or didn't you?"

"I did," Artemis admitted. "And that 'psycho bitch'is my sister, so watch your mouth."

"Your sister?" Roy repeated. "Jesus, please at least tell me she's your _older _sister."

"You're in luck," said Artemis dryly.

"Well tell your sister to back off. She's freaking me out."

"If you really wanted that, you would have blocked her number," Artemis pointed out. "Now are you done yelling at me? I have homework."

"I – that's not what I…" Roy spluttered, before changing tracks. "You're a freshman. You don't even know the meaning of homew – "

" – right, right," Artemis interrupted, rolling her eyes and turning to go, though she hesitated with her hand on the door handle. "One word of advice, Harper."

"What?" Roy grumbled, looking up from his phone.

"If you're going to involve yourself with someone I care about, you better do it right, or I will personally make sure your reproductive capabilities are never the same."

"Hey, your sister's the one who – "

" – I'm not talking about Jade," said Artemis, eyes narrowing in threat. "I'm talking about Kaldur. If you break his heart, I will break your balls. Good night, Roy."

And without another word she slipped out of the room and shut the door in her RA's face.

* * *

><p>Over the course of the following week, Artemis tackled the challenge of learning to skate.<p>

Thursday she was still too sore from practice to hit the track proper, but went outside anyway, bundled up to the nines – the extra padding was good both for the cold and for cushioning her falls. About fifteen minutes into her attempt to circle Mountain Hall, Megan and Conner turned up, having just come from Astronomy class, and to Artemis's equal dismay and gratitude, decided to stick around and help her.

Their "help" began with Megan gently pulling Artemis along the freshly-shoveled sidewalk, allowing her to maintain both her balance and a steady pace, then escalated into both Megan and Conner chasing frantically after her as she sped out of control onto a patch of black ice, and ended with Artemis crashing full-on into a hapless prospective student. They both went tumbling off the path and into the bushes, hats and limbs flying every which way.

"I'm so sorry," Artemis babbled frantically as she tried to pull the boy out of the snow, only to slip on her skates yet again and knock them both back on their asses. "Oh my god, seriously, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to – "

"All cool, ese," the prospie assured her, his face just as red as hers as he scrambled to his feet, clutching his Beatus Portum information packet to his. "Just uh, just getting the full college experience, right?"

Their nervous laughter filled the air as Megan and Conner finally caught up to them and pulled Artemis to her feet, adding their apologies to hers.

"Honestly, it's no problem," said the prospie as Conner dusted him off worriedly. He gave the older boy an uncertain smile, shouldering his backpack, which he'd retrieved from the snow. "Maybe if I get in here you all can show me the ropes next year, and we'll call it even?"

"Sure," Artemis agreed, still mortified that she'd mowed down a high schooler. "Of course. Um, what's your name?"

"Jaime," said the boy. "I uh, have to go now, campus tour in five. Good luck with the skates, hermana."

And he ran off ("fled" might have been a more appropriate verb, but Artemis couldn't really blame him).

"Maybe that's enough for today," Megan suggested meekly, and it was.

Friday was marginally more productive – having persuaded Dick to join her this time, Artemis allowed him to tow her ever-so-slowly in his car while she gripped a rope they'd tied to his mirrors. Whenever she built up too much speed, she simply stopped herself against the trunk, and whenever they got too slow to be good practice, she would flick the rope like reins and he would obligingly hit the gas. By the end of the afternoon she was almost ready to try it without the training wheels, at least until their last run around the parking lot, during which he randomly jerked the wheel to the side and sent her flying around the side and straight into a snowbank.

"Centrifugal force is a bitch, huh?" he grinned as he pulled her out, the car safely parked in its usual spot.

"It's also a myth," she shot back, shaking the show out of her hair. Somehow, she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty when he got a faceful of it. "But nice try."

She gave herself the weekend off and spent it the way she usually did, with homework during the day and shenanigans at night. Come Monday, though, it was back to the grindstone. Determined to be at least competent by Wednesday's practice, Artemis strapped on the skates and struck out for class with the wheels on this time. While she certainly got some funny looks, she stayed upright for the most part, and even got a high five from one of her teammates on her way back from Statistics. Tuesday proved even more successful, culminating in a run-in with Wally just after her last class of the day.

"Looking fly, babe," he grinned as she toddled down the stairs onto the main path, trying not to start skating before she reached the bottom. "Think you can beat me home?"

And before she had a chance to decline (she wasn't that solid yet and she didn't actually have a death wish), he'd cinched his backpack tight against his shoulders and taken off down the sidewalk, scattering peers and upperclassmen left and right.

So against her better judgment, Artemis pursued. She bent her knees and leaned forward, feeling the cold air against her face and the swing of her ponytail at her back as she pushed off again and again, gaining momentum and, to her own astonishment, _not _losing control. Before she knew it she had cleared the post-class pack and was out onto the clearer road that led back to the first-year dorms, but Wally was still a ways ahead, proving that the many track medals hanging from his wall were not, in fact, consolation prizes. Gritting her teeth, Artemis crouched lower and pushed herself harder. No way she was giving him the satisfaction of winning, not when she had physics on her side.

Through the Religious Studies courtyard they went, dodging professors and flustered undergraduates. Avoiding obstacles hadn't been part of Artemis's training regimen just yet, but there was no time to learn like the present, so as she approached the curb, instead of veering to the side to make use of the dip at the crosswalk, she simply jumped – for a moment, she forgot to breathe as her skates left the pavement and she went flying forward. Then she was back on the ground with a hard jolt, and she was still upright,and still going, and while only a miracle could explain it, she wasn't about to complain.

With about twenty meters left between her and Mountain Hall, Artemis saw her chance – Wally was ahead, but not by much, and she was seriously cruising now.

"Behind you, speedster," she called, half as a taunt and half as a warning as she came zipping up behind him. She was going much too fast to swerve around him at this point, but thankfully he seemed to have gotten the memo, and jumped to the side as she sped past with a triumphant shout. Grinning ear to ear, Artemis turned her head to the side to get a good look at his face, then promptly went flying as her skates struck the slush-covered grass just in front of the dormitory. She barely had time to yelp in surprise before she had crashed headlong into the side of the building, legs and skates tangling beneath her in a jumbled mess.

But before she could hit the ground, Wally's laughter filled her ears and his hands shot out to grab her arms, pushing her back up against the wall to brace her upright.

"That's one way to stop," he grinned, still panting lightly from his run – he'd practically crashed into her to break her fall, and his momentum had brought him flush against her, his arms now easily encircling her waist while his feet kept her skates steady. Pumped up on adrenaline and her victory, Artemis forgot the snappy comeback and simply kissed him through her breathless chuckling, hands fisting into the front of his sweatshirt

When she pulled back, it was to see Conner standing on the path only a few meters away, staring at the two of them.

"'Me and Wally what?'" he mimicked, then walked up the steps to disappear inside, shaking his head the whole while.

"Oops," said Wally agreeably. "Were we supposed to be on the down low?"

"Um," said Artemis. "Not anymore, I guess."

* * *

><p>Wednesday practice went stunningly, as did Artemis's personal training on Thursday and Friday, during which she successfully crossed campus a total of three times and hopped over almost every obstacle Zee put down for her in the south parking lot. She still fell, on occasion, but she was getting better at falling in ways that let her get up fast, or at least ways that hurt less than her first few ties.<p>

"I wish my dad would let me do roller derby," sighed Zatanna enviously as she watched Artemis loop in tight circles around a traffic cone on Friday afternoon. Dick and Wally had stolen it from some campus construction project last semester, and it had lived at the Summit until meeting its current destiny.

"Why wouldn't he?" asked Artemis, trying to convince herself she wasn't dizzy.

"He's way too overprotective for that," said Zee. "He barely let me ride a bike. He always says if you have to wear a helmet to do it, it's probably too dangerous in the first place."

"Ha," Artemis laughed, shaking her head in amusement. "Yeah my dad wouldn't let me do roller derby because it wasn't violent _enough._"

"Your dad and my dad might not see eye to eye on very many things," remarked Zee.

"Trust me," said Artemis, skidding to a halt in front of her friend and offering her a hand. "That says good things about your dad."

"I figured," said Zee. She smiled as she let Artemis help her up. "From what you've said about your dad, that is. Do you have a game tomorrow?"

"Just a scrimmage," said Artemis, turning to head inside – it was movie night tonight, an inevitable sing-along of Mulan on Dick's projector. "You all don't need to show up, you'd be the only ones. If you're free next Saturday though, you should definitely come cheer for me then, it's our first game."

"We'll be there," Zee promised, nudging Artemis's side fondly as she walked beside her. "You picked a name yet?"

"Yeah," Artemis grinned.

"Well?"

"Killer Crock."

"Naturally."

* * *

><p>Saturday night came and the scrimmage could not have gone better. Not only did Artemis remember most of the rules of roller derby (jammers score by lapping opponents, deck the shit out of anyone who tries to stop your jammer, no elbows, no biting, etc.), she successfully scored a healthy number of points for her squad and managed not to break any bones, either. The uniform Megan had helped her make seemed to work just fine – skintight green padded spandex, sleeveless to show off her muscular shoulders, midriff-baring to show off her abs – and at one point she'd even managed to outrace Raquel, to the older girl's surprise and delight. Her squad had won. She would be in the opening jam for next Saturday's game, and she couldn't have been in higher spirits as she skated back home afterwards.<p>

Pausing only to shuck her skates in the entryway, Artemis sprinted barefoot up the stairs, eager to share the news with the others.

"Hey!" she called excitedly. The hallway was empty; probably everyone was in Dick and Wally's room or something. "Guys, I'm back, what are we up t – "

But she stopped abruptly as Kaldur stepped of her own room and into the hall, shutting the door carefully behind him. She could tell just by the look on his face that something was not right.

"What's going on?" she asked quickly. "Is everyone okay?"

"We are – that is a complicated question," he replied, his voice quiet. "Zatanna's father has passed away. She received the call about an hour ago."

"What?" said Artemis blankly. It was like the words had gone straight past her. "No, she was just talking to him on Skype last night. He was going to fly up for her birthday next month. He wasn't sick or anything."

"It seems there was an accident at his workplace," said Kaldur. "We did not ask for further explanation."

"But Zee doesn't have a mom," Artemis objected. "Her dad can't be dead, that would mean she…she…"

"I am sorry," said Kaldur, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. His own expression was subdued, sadder than usual. "We are all just as surprised as you, but we cannot change what has happened. We can only support Zatanna as she copes with the news herself. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm…fine, just…" said Artemis, her gaze wandering to the wall behind Kaldur's head. To go from the incredible adrenaline high of her roller derby victory to the plunging reality of this…it was all a little dizzying. "Where is she?"

"In your room, with the others," he replied, stepping aside to make way.

She nodded mutely and bent down to place her skates on the ground, along with her helmet. This wasn't the kind of thing they made protective gear for. With a final glance at Kaldur, she opened the door and slipped inside.

The scene was pretty much what she'd expected, though that didn't make it any easier to take – Zatanna was seated on Megan's bed, framed on either side by Dick and Megan herself, the two holding her close; Conner sat across the way, leaning concernedly into the space between the two beds, and Wally leaned against the wall, arms folded over his chest as he watched them. At Artemis's entry, everyone turned, giving her a good look at Zatanna's pale, tearstained face and the unfamiliar helplessness of Dick's expression. Before she knew it, Artemis was crossing the space between them and pulling her friend to her in a fierce, apologetic embrace.

"Zee," she whispered, cradling the other girl's head as Zatanna dissolved into fresh sobs against her shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry."

But there wasn't really anything to be said beyond that. There were no magical words to turn this backwards, no scientific formulas to follow that would make it all better, and as Artemis stood there holding her friend for what felt like forever, she found herself thinking of the countless times she'd wished her own father dead. What kind of sick Fate would take away Zatanna's dad before hers? It didn't make any sense.

They stayed like that for a long while, through Zatanna's repeated attempts to make them go out and have a proper Saturday night, just the six of them making it clear that they were going to stay there as long as she needed them to. At one point, Megan excused herself and returned with a mug of hot cocoa that Zee drank as they all talked quietly, and Dick shared a short but poignant story about Mr. Zatara, who had apparently been a business associate of his father's. While it did make Zee start to cry again, it was clear she appreciated it from the lingering hug she gave him when he finished, and whatever he whispered into her ear seemed to give her some comfort as well.

Around midnight, she finally spoke again.

"I don't want to go back to my room tonight," she said, her voice small and hoarse. "D-do you mind if I stay here?"

"Of course not," said Artemis, echoed immediately by Megan.

"You need anything, you tell us, okay?" said Dick softly, laying a hand on Zatanna's back. "We're all here for you."

Zee nodded silently at him, forcing a weak smile.

"I…I think I could use a little alone time, before I go to bed," she said, looking around the room at each of them. "If you all don't mind."

Conner nodded and rose, the others rapidly following suit, but Zee shook her head.

"Sorry, I meant…I'm going to go get a little air," she clarified. "Outside, up at the Summit."

Kaldur and Dick exchanged an uneasy look that was so subtle, Artemis almost thought she imagined it, until Zatanna acknowledged it herself.

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," she told them as she stood up and wiped her eyes, sniffling slightly. "I'll be back down in twenty minutes tops, I promise. I just…need a minute."

"Take as much time as you need," Kaldur reassured her. He squeezed her shoulder gently as she passed, grey eyes concerned and sympathetic.

"Zee, wait," Artemis cut in before the other girl could leave the room. "It's freezing out there. At least take my coat, okay?"

Pulling it down from the hook by the door, she wrapped it around her friend's shoulders and pulled up the hood, its soft white lining contrasting with her black hair. With a small nod of gratitude, Zee slid her arms through the sleeves and zipped it up, slipping past them all without a word and making for the staircase that would take her to the Summit.

The others exchanged a look.

"We should get the room ready," said Wally quietly, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

They got to work. Together, Conner and Kaldur lifted Megan's bed up and stacked it on top of Artemis's, utilizing the bunk bed option that all the dormitory beds had, then Wally, Dick and Artemis helped them to move both mattresses down onto the floor to create one king-sized space. Meanwhile, Megan fetched the extra blanket Kaldur kept in his closet and set about finding Zee a clean pair of pajamas from her own dresser.

When they had finished, they dispersed, and Artemis went to take a shower since she was grungy and bruised from her scrimmage. As she let the water run over her, soothing her tired muscles, she wondered how Zee was doing somewhere directly up above her, out in the cold. Though Artemis's family had not exactly prepared her to understand how deep a bond between father and daughter could go, she could tell from the way Zatanna's ordinarily impeccable composure had cracked that this was the kind of thing that would take a long time to heal. She just hoped they could be what she needed.

Shower complete, Artemis wrapped her hair in a towel and herself in a robe and made for her room, only to find Dick and Wally waiting for her in the hallway.

"Hey," said Dick, looking unusually subdued with his hands in his pockets. "Just wanted to say that if you guys need anything…"

"…we're right next door," Wally finished.

"I know," said Artemis, nodding to both of them. "Thanks, guys. We'll take good care of her."

They exchanged their good nights, and the two boys disappeared into their own room. Teeth brushed and pajamas donned, Artemis settled in with Megan to wait for Zatanna, who appeared about ten minutes later, cold and quiet but calmer than she'd been before. When at last she slid into bed beside them, Megan turned out the light and curled up at Zatanna's right while Artemis laid down to her left, and the three of them began to drift off to sleep.

Just when Artemis was about to doze off, she felt Zee shift beside her.

"Arty?" she whispered.

"Mhm?"

"I…forgot to ask. Did you win?"

Reaching through the darkness, Artemis squeezed Zatanna's hand lightly.

"Yeah," she whispered back, feeling strangely sad all of a sudden. "Yeah, I…I did."

"Good," mumbled Zatanna.

Then she rolled over and didn't speak again until the morning.

* * *

><p>The next week was pretty much like any other, except not at all. Dick drove Zee to the airport early Monday morning so that she could fly home for her father's funeral, which Bruce Wayne had apparently paid for and arranged; Wayne was also donating legal services to assist Zatanna in handling her father's estate so that she wouldn't have to take a semester off to do it all herself.<p>

The mood in the Cave was decidedly somber. Even Roy seemed to have gotten the memo, as he fired off significantly fewer abusive comments at them than usual, even going so far as to pull Artemis aside and awkwardly indicate that if any of them needed someone to talk to, he (and Dinah) were both available. And though Roy was probably the second to last person on Earth Artemis would confide in, she did appreciate the gesture, and passed the message on.

On Wednesday, Artemis made her way to derby practice and participated to the best of her ability, but her usually aggressive spirit was significantly dampened by recent events. It was just hard to concentrate when she kept wondering how Zee was doing, wondering if she should call, wondering if it was wrong even to be starting up a new, time-consuming sport when one of her best friends needed her.

By the end of the night, she'd made up her mind.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" she asked Raquel as the others picked up the cones that marked the track and packed their gear into bags.

"Sure," said Raquel, looking up from the roster she'd been marking. "What's up, 'Killer Crock?'"

Artemis returned the smile that had come with the nickname, but couldn't keep it up.

"Listen I…I don't think I can play Saturday's game," she said.

"Say what now?"

"A really close friend is going through some hard stuff," Artemis explained, biting her lip. "I think I need to be there for her this weekend, not out taking names on the track. I really like playing and I'd love to do it in the future, but now's just…not really a good time. I'm sorry."

Raquel hesitated for a moment, looking at Artemis as though thinking something over, before her face broke into a small smile.

"Do what you need to do, girl," she said, patting her shoulder. "I know you wouldn't ask if it weren't really important, so…go, be with your friend. We'll manage without you."

"Thank you," Artemis sighed gratefully. "I really am sorry. I'll come back soon, I promise."

"I know you will," Raquel replied with a grin. "You need this sport."

With a helpless laugh of agreement, Artemis turned and skated away, shouldering her bag. Zee was supposed to get back tonight, and she wanted to be there when she arrived. Unfortunately, that plan turned out to be a bust when Zatanna was actually waiting for her outside the gym, fresh from the plane if the suitcase was any indication.

"Hey," said Artemis in surprise. "Welcome…welcome back, Zee. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I just got in, figured I'd pick you up from practice," said Zatanna with a small smile. "How was it?"

"Good," Artemis said. "I'm not playing Saturday's game, thought I might just hang out with you guys instead."

She was pretty sure Zee wouldn't like it if she revealed she was ditching completely on her account, so it seemed like a safe excuse. Artemis instantly doubted that judgment as an expression of surprised displeasure crossed Zatanna's face.

"No!" Zee objected, surprisingly loudly. "You have to play. Please, I've been looking forward to it all week. I want to watch you kick ass."

"I…Zee, are you sure?"

"Completely," Zee assured her. "It's sweet of you to think of me, and I know that's what you were doing so you don't have to pretend, but I want you to play."

"Okay," Artemis relented. "If…if that's what you really want. I'll win it for you, how's that sound?"

"That sounds excellent," said Zatanna, and together, they headed for the Cave.

* * *

><p>Saturday rolled around, and with it came some semblance of normalcy (that was to say chaos).<p>

Artemis woke up to find that Dick had absconded with her skates. Technically speaking she wasn't sure it was Dick, but Megan wasn't really the possession-stealing type, and no one else in the Cave could have gotten them out her room except Richard "Oh Was That Locked?" Grayson. When she finally bullied Wally into giving away his roommate's location, she found him out in the parking lot, busily spray-painting her once-white skates a deep forest green and adding strange crimson splotches.

"So when you kick people in the face, you won't have to clean the bloodstains off," he said helpfully, holding them up.

Artemis gave him a look.

"Sometimes, you worry me."

As with all special events, Megan had baked a cake for the occasion, so Artemis was not at all surprised when after dinner her roommate turned up with a triple-layer chocolate decadence creation ("coincidentally" Zatanna's favorite). In white frosting at the top were the words "KICK SOME ASS," over which Megan apologized endlessly, claiming it had been Wally's idea and not at all her fault until she realized that she was the only person who remotely cared about the cursing, at which point she shut up, served the cake, and quietly confessed to Artemis that she hoped she did indeed kick some ass later.

"I'll do my best," Artemis promised, and gave her roommate a hug.

She headed over to the gym at a little past seven, gear in tow, and by seven thirty she was out with her team, warming up with laps around the track as their opponents trickled in from their bus outside. They were playing Del Luz College (technically "The Light," though the Birds of Prey liked to mispronounce the name as "They'll Lose" instead) and the lineup was looking good – their stars were Divastation and the Ice Queen, but Artemis was pretty sure they could take them.

"Good crowd," Raquel commented at five to eight, and it was. Though roller derby didn't draw the crowds football did (nor did the gym have room to hold them) there were at least a hundred people in the stands. "Those your friends?"

"How can you – "Artemis began to ask, but she stopped as she caught sight of them: seven familiar people were sitting in a row in the very front of the south-side stand, each holding a large poster: A-R-T-E-M-I-S. Biting back a smile, she skated over to greet them and was surprised to see that the person holding the S was in fact Dr. Lance, as Roy apparently had elected not to come.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," said Dinah when Artemis expressed her surprise at her presence. "I started this team back when I was a student here, you know."

And somehow that was not surprising at all. Giving Zee a quick hug, Artemis reaffirmed her promise to win the game on her behalf and skated back out to join her teammates to the wild cheers of her friends.

The final surprise of the night came at eight sharp, when the two teams lined up for the first jam and the referee rolled out, and suddenly Artemis understood why Roy hadn't been out in the stands. In retrospect, it seemed perfectly fitting that this was what he'd been doing with most of his Saturday nights all last semester. He was the kind of guy who would enjoy the amusing combination of short skirts and straight-up violence that roller derby provided, and he probably got off on the power of making the calls, the self-important prick.

"Wasn't expecting to see you here," she remarked as he approached Raquel to shake her hand, then Del Luz's captain's.

"Yeah, well, don't expect any preferential treatment," he said, clipping his helmet on as he skated backwards towards the center of the rink.

"I won't need it to win," Artemis shot back, and he just grinned, calling out to her one last time:

"For the record, hair-whipping your opponents isn't against the rules."

"All right, gang, listen up," Raquel said, circling around to address their huddle. "We're gonna try to play a clean game here, but if they bring the elbows, we bring the elbows right back. If they try and trip you, you give twice as good as you get. These guys have a rep for rough, so let's show them we do rough better. Mouthguards in. Swag on. Birds of Prey, let's go hunting!"

Their hands flew into the air, their team flew into formation, Roy blew his whistle, and the game was on.

Raquel had definitely been right about one thing – Del Luz played a mean game. Within the first five minutes Artemis found herself shoved violently to the floor on more than one occasion, but her teammates were always quick with a hand to get her back up and rolling, and she returned the favor. Where Del Luz played with brute force, their jammers barreling through the pack to score points while their blockers did their best to beat down the opposition, the Birds played a lighter, nimbler game (though just as fierce). Raquel, Kara, Kory and Raven weaved, glided and dodged around the track almost as though they could fly, proving the team name was not just an artsy throwaway. Artemis, though she wasn't quite on their level yet, proved adept at dodging and at aiming herself through very narrow windows of opportunity.

By the midway point of the last quarter, there was blood on the track (the sign of a good game, Raquel insisted) and the score was pretty damn close, with the Birds ahead by just a few points. Divastation was up as Del Luz's jammer, though, and the woman was enormous, a veritable wall of muscle and mass who easily smashed through whatever defenses they attempted to line up. Their only shot would be to get their jammer out in front, putting them in scoring position rather than Del Luz.

Coincidentally, their jammer was Artemis.

The crowd was roaring as she bent her knees and toed the starting line, casting a glance at Divastation beside her, who offered her a threatening smile.

"They'll be cleaning you off the track when this lap is over, girlie," said the larger girl.

"If you mean cleaning my dirt, then maybe," Artemis shot back. "If I don't make you eat it first."

Before the other jammer could work up a response, the first whistle blew and the pack took off. A moment later Roy blew it again and the two of them surged forward, skates pounding the track in a frantic race to work up to speed. Here, Artemis had a slight advantage – since she was smaller and lighter than her opponent, it was easier for her to accelerate, and she found herself arriving at the pack a few yards ahead of the other jammer, but unfortunately there her edge came to an abrupt edge as a hip-chuck by a side-skating enemy blocker sent her spiraling for the railing.

Kory and Raven managed to grab her arms and steady her enough to avoid an outright wipeout, but the time the detour had cost her had been critical – Divastation was now wreaking her way through the pack, breaking out in front, pulling into the lead…

"Crock!" called Raquel, holding out her hand – she was at the front of the group, skating backwards. "Maneuver seven!"

It took Artemis a second to remember what the hell maneuver seven was, but when she remembered, she was on it. Pushing off the railing for a speed boost, she skirted the edge of the pack and made for Raquel, her own hand stretched out, both their arms straight and stiff. At the last second, Raquel flipped around to skate forward, grabbed Artemis's hand, and pulled hard, whipping her around and sending her flying down the track after Divastation. Just as the abrupt circular momentum of Dick's car had sent her hurtling into a snow drift not two weeks before, the whip had pushed her to an alarming speed. Almost out of control, Artemis crouched lower and focused on passing. It was time to score some points.

The crowd seemed to hold its breath as she zipped towards Divastation, who threw up an arm to block her passage, but Artemis was prepared for the sabotage. She ducked under it and emerged on the other side, still cruising, somehow managed to make the curve around the next part of the track, and pounded the ground in hot pursuit of the pack. Before she knew it she was blitzing through them, her teammates clearing the way, and Roy was blowing time, and the crowd was exploding in cheers, but none louder than Artemis's friends'.

The ensuing party was perhaps the craziest one Artemis had been to all year. Roller derby kids took their fun seriously, and with Roy providing alcohol instead of confiscating it (which he had occasionally done last semester, presumably when his own stores had been running low) there was no shortage of liquid amusement to be had. For her part, Artemis accepted her teammates' accolades, dished out plenty of her own, and joined in countless toasts to various memorable plays from the game. But after about an hour and a half, she excused herself, and with Rocket talking down the others' objections, she escaped outside and began the walk back home. People were waiting for her, after all.

* * *

><p>"To Killer Crock!" Dick's voice rang out as she crested the stairs, and a resounding cheer followed. The gang spilled out of his and Wally's room, hurrying to crush her in hugs (Megan and Zatanna), high fives (Dick and Conner), congratulatory shoulder pats (Kaldur) and playful ass slaps (Wally, whom she immediately decked).<p>

Tipsy and still running on the giddiness of her first real derby victory, Artemis allowed Conner and Kaldur to lift her up onto their shoulders, and the seven of them moved to commandeer the study lounge for a well-earned celebration. Megan had baked another cake (when did she even have the time? it had only been about four hours since the last one), and Wally had mixed up a batch of what he called "derby drank," which everyone had the good sense to drink very little of – when Captain Chemistry wouldn't tell you what was in something, it was best just to leave it alone. Dick DJ'd from his laptop, and Zatanna led them all in a game of Psychiatrist, a game that had them all guessing at each other's dirty secrets, which turned out to be quite fun.

Just as Kaldur (the hapless one attempting to deduce the rule of the game) turned to ask Wally some other paralyzingly embarrassing question, there was a noise from the stairwell, and the seven of them turned to see Roy standing in the entryway, still in his referee uniform and looking enjoyably clobbered.

"Hey," he grunted, casting Artemis's helmet at his feet. "Y'forgot this."

"Ah, the monthly Tossing of the Headpiece," Dick sighed happily, slinging an arm around Zatanna's shoulders. "What gathering would be complete without it?"

Roy gave him a weird look, clearly not sober enough to understand. Artemis laughed.

"Thanks," she said, leaning over to pick it up from where it had landed. She hesitated before she looked back up at him, wondering if it was worth saying. "You know, you're actually kind of not an asshole."

"Don't spread it around," Roy yawned, turning and wandering back into the hallway, towards his room. "Don't want people thinking I've gone soft…"

"We don't think," said Wally. "We _know." _

But Roy just waved an arm dismissively and disappeared into the Cave, leaving them to look around the table and shrug at one another.

And so the evening and the party continued, until it was well past 4 AM and no one could be bothered to bring it up, until ever-responsible Kaldur shooed everyone back to their rooms and supervised their sleepy transition to bed with a fond smile on his face that said his inability to understand their craziness was matched only by his affection for all of them. And at last, they retired.


	8. Wildness and Wilderness

Absurd delay is absurd. Let's say I was trying to simulate the authentic YJ experience with a hiatus. But seriously, though, I'm sorry broskis.

* * *

><p>On went the semester, and Artemis fell into routine once more.<p>

The Birds of Prey were going strong at 5-1, much to Doctor Lance's pleasure – apparently they hadn't had such a good record since she'd been on the team herself. Raquel had become a reasonably frequent guest in the Cave, gregarious and easygoing enough to wedge herself into the bizarre social fabric of their group, and for a while, she'd seemed to have her eye on Kaldur (who could blame her?). When Megan had gently informed her of his relationship (?) with Roy, her eyes had widened and she'd simply turned to Artemis and asked if they were taking "applications for a third party" because "that is way too much fineass man DNA to fall by the genetic wayside."

"I'll let you know if anything opens up," Artemis had promised, laughing.

Zee, though never as effusive as she had been through most of first semester, seemed to have gotten her feet back on the ground. She was working with the school administration, Dean Queen and Bruce Wayne as her advocates, to work out a permanent housing situation on or near campus, as she had opted to sell her father's house back home. There were still nights when she ended up sleeping on the hall, whether in Artemis's bed or up at the Summit with a few others if it was warm enough, but on the whole it seemed clear now: she was going to be all right.

As for Wally, he and Artemis had given up on the whole subtlety thing at one point, as there was no point in keeping anything from Dick "Oh Was That a Secret?" Grayson. Megan and Conner still seemed to be the official couple of the Cave, though, and there was no chance in hell that Artemis and Wally were ever going to absorb their sweet-as-sugar relationship dynamic. If anything, their bickering had intensified with dating, and Artemis wouldn't have had it any other way.

* * *

><p>"What were you thinking of doing for spring break?" Artemis yawned one afternoon in late February, leaning back against the wall behind her bed. Megan had just come back from class and was in the process of unloading her backpack. It was a lazy Thursday, and with only one class on Friday, Artemis was taking a nice long respite from studying.<p>

"I hadn't actually thought about it yet," Megan replied pensively. "I've never had a spring break before, but I've see them on TV. But…I'm not sure that's the kind of spring break I want to have."

"What, Girls Gone Wild isn't your thing?" Artemis teased. "I never would have guessed."

Blushing, Megan straightened out and hung her now-empty backpack on her bedpost.

"Why do you ask?" she said, changing the subject rather conspicuously. "Do you have plans?"

Artemis shrugged.

"Not yet," she said. "If no one's made any, I was thinking we could try to do something all together. You know, go on a road trip or go camping or something. Just get off campus for a little bit."

"Camping sounds fun," said Megan. "I've never done it before."

"You might have to give up looking cute for a few days," said Artemis, trying to imagine Megan in the wilderness and encountering a bit of mental dissonance. "That going to be a problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, there might not be showers, and you'll probably want to wear clunky hiking boots and a nice thick coat. Function over flair, that kind of thing."

"I can be unbathed and wear boots and still look cute," Megan objected.

"All right, all right," Artemis laughed. "Knowing you and Zee I'm sure you'll prove me wrong. Camping it is, then, if we can talk the others into it."

"Talk us into what?" asked Wally, popping his head in the door.

"Spending four long, hot nights sleeping in a cramped tent pressed up against me for warmth," Artemis replied smoothly.

"Convinced," Wally reported.

Megan's face turned beet red. Artemis smirked.

"Thought you might be."

* * *

><p>Persuading everyone else turned out to be a bit more work, though not a ton – Dick was game, of course, as were Zee and Kaldur (the latter of whom immediately began working out the logistics of such a trip), but Roy and Conner were harder sells. Conner simply didn't see the appeal of abandoning their normal hangouts to cook terrible food in the wilderness, and Roy maintained for a solid four days that he had upperclassman friends to spend the break with, despite all evidence to the contrary.<p>

"Your ex-girlfriend does not count," Artemis told him firmly on day five, and as he bitterly deflated, she knew she'd won.

When it became apparent that the rest of the gang was going, Conner at last gave in, presumably to avoid spending the better part of a week alone in his room, playing Solitaire or watching static on the TV. And so it was official. Those who didn't have sleeping bags rented them from Beatus Portum's Outdoor Education Center, from which they also got four tents, two coolers and a portable gas stove. Megan and Kaldur put themselves in charge of the shopping, though Dick and Wally submitted a long list of must-haves, and Roy continued to pretend that he was waiting to hear back from his mythological upperclassman friends up until the day before the trip, when he grumbled something about "plans falling through" and surrendered his car to be loaded up with gear.

On the morning of, Artemis woke up extra early to take a nice long shower, knowing the facilities at the campground were liable to be suspect (and to cost money). Enjoying the dulcet tones of Dick and Wally bickering over the remaining shower stall, she washed her hair, soaped herself thoroughly, and let herself get excited. After all, her experience of "camping" had been limited to her dad forcing her and her sister out of the house and into the nearby forest to "build character," an experience that had both toughened them up and driven them apart. She was eager to replace those less-than-fond memories with some better ones, and this seemed the perfect way to do it.

* * *

><p>"That's the last one," Conner reported as he hefted their third cooler (the one just for booze) into the cramped back seat of Megan's van. It was amazing how much space camping supplies took up, and they'd been forced to use all three vehicles available to them (though that may also have had something to do with the sheer amount of S'mores fixings Wally had insisted they pack).<p>

"Everyone remembered a pillow, right?" Megan checked, at which Roy swore and bolted for the stairs. The others milled about, double-checking supplies.

"Did anyone pack the marshmallow skewers?"

"Yeah, they didn't fit in the grocery bag so I put them in with the tent poles."

"Whose condoms are these?"

"Whose do you think?"

"Arty, do we really need this much coffee?"

"_Yes."_

"Right, sorry I asked."

"Okay, so this is the route we're taking," Dick announced, handing a sheet of paper to each of the other drivers as Roy returned, pillow under one arm. "The cliffs are a bit of a detour but it'll be a great place to have lunch and get rid of Wally if he's become unbearable."

"Dude."

"Just kidding, bro. You know I love you."

"What time do we expect we will arrive at the campsite?" asked Kaldur, studying the directions over Megan's shoulder.

"Dinnerish," shrugged Dick. "I don't know. As long as we can set up camp before dark it's not really a big deal."

"And you have the reservations?"

"Yup," Dick nodded, patting the breast pocket of his jacket. "Got it covered. We good to go?"

The others exchanged looks and nods, and spring break officially began.

* * *

><p>"Fuck, Marry, Kill: Professor Hol, Professor Themyscira, Dr. Lance," Artemis prompted, leaning forward between the two front seats as far as her seatbelt would allow. She was wedged between sets of sleeping bags in the back of Roy's car, and they'd been on the road for nearly two hours.<p>

"I'm still not playing this game," said Roy, eyes flicking to the mirror.

"Conner?"

The quarterback just grunted.

"Come on, don't act like you've never thought about it."

"I haven't."

Artemis rolled her eyes, shifting in her seat.

"Sure you haven't. Okay, Roy, who was your first kiss?"

"Your mom."

"Lame."

"So's your mom."

"My mom is handicapped, asshole."

"Well fuck."

"Conner," Artemis said, turning towards him. "First crush."

"Megan."

"There's no way you had your first crush in college."

"Megan," Conner repeated stubbornly.

"Ugh, you're hopeless," Artemis groaned. "Fine. Roy, ever had sex in a public bathroom?"

"What the hell?"

"Dorm bathrooms count."

"Uh…"

"Thought so. Conner, same question."

Conner stared out the window at the passing highway like he hadn't even heard her.

"Gross, I'm never using our shower again," said Artemis, wrinkling her nose. "How about at the Summit?"

"Leave me alone."

"Hey, if you guys didn't like the cars, you should have said something earlier."

"We don't like the cars," said Roy and Conner as one.

"Well too bad, 'cause you're stuck with me. Now Roy, on the Kinsey scale, would you say you're more like a two or a four, or…?"

Ten miles down the road, they pulled into a rest stop to orchestrate the swap Roy had negotiated with Megan's car, which was to trade Artemis for Kaldur.

"You guys are no fun anyway," she told them as she shut the door and crossed the gravel towards the minivan, where Megan and Zee were waiting. "You're like what would happen if someone found a way to clone anger itself."

As Roy started the car and pulled off back towards the highway, Artemis met Kaldur's amused gaze through the back window and winked.

* * *

><p>It was about five o'clock when they arrived at the campgrounds, and five thirty by the time they finally made it to their campsite. True to the advertisements, the grounds were spacious, and well-shielded by trees, with a large fire pit in the clearing and several picnic tables to be shared with the surrounding sites (though in a pleasant turn of events, those sites were actually empty but for a single tent and a Jeep – they would have few neighbors to bother).<p>

With the sun setting in the west, they got to work setting up camp. Conner and Wally went to go make a fire in the fire pit ("Science!") while Zee and Kaldur set up their little stove and began cooking. Roy, Artemis and Dick got out the tents and set about pitching them, with occasional help from Megan, who flitted back and forth between everyone, helping the chefs chop vegetables and making sure Wally didn't burn down the whole forest.

"Dibs on the tent closest to the bathrooms," Artemis said as they finished, envisioning a chilly midnight walk to the facilities.

"You enjoy that eight feet of advantage," said Roy as he tossed aside the rock he'd been using to drive in the tent stakes.

"I will, thanks."

"If we were going _real _camping, there wouldn't _be _bathrooms," Dick grumbled.

"You can piss in the bushes all you want, Wonder Boy," replied Artemis. "Some of us are citizens of the 21st century."

"Guys, dinner's basically ready, you can come start getting rice," Zatanna called from the picnic tables, waving with a paring knife.

The gang filed over, and soon they were seated around the fire, ladling the fruits of Zee and Kaldur's efforts into their bowls as Dick passed around a bottle opener for their various beverages. By then it was quite dark, and a chill was settling into the air, but with warm curry to eat and the crackling heat of the fire on their faces, no one complained.

After dinner, they spent a little while catching up – it had been a while since they'd all seen each other, as the semester had picked up and they all had their own activities and passions to be pursuing. Conner had rugby, Megan volunteered, Zee played cello in the orchestra, Artemis was always off with the derby team, Wally had track and lab research, Kaldur swam and worked in the library, and Dick did Mock Trial and whatever the hell else Dick did. A cappella, maybe? You never knew with him.

(Roy wasn't busy. He just avoided them on principle, apparently.)

The night wore on, and as the fire died down they wound up lying around it, looking to the sky as Megan and Conner pointed out constellations and even a planet – Mars was bright that night. The couple had been taking Astronomy together, and despite all her natural instincts Artemis couldn't help but appreciate how sweet they were together, sitting side by side, pointing up to the sky and sharing what they'd learned with everyone else.

Only when she looked over and happened to see the tears in Zee's eyes did she realize that something wasn't right.

"You okay?" she whispered, reaching out to nudge her friend in the side.

At the sound of her voice, Dick looked over and sat up, scooting closer to Zatanna as he frowned in concern.

"It's fine," Zee whispered back, her voice trembling, but already the others were sitting up and glancing over; Megan and Conner had stopped the astronomy lesson, looking worried. "I'm fine."

"It's only us out here," said Artemis. "You don't have to pretend."

Zatanna took a deep breath and sat up just a little, leaning back against the log bench on which she'd sat during dinner.

"It's fine," she repeated, wiping her eyes. "My…my dad used to take me out stargazing, back when I was little. That's all."

She trailed off, voice choked. As Artemis shifted over to wrap an arm around her shoulders, she turned into the touch gratefully while the others looked on.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to ruin the moment. I know it's been a while. I…I should be over this by now."

"No, you shouldn't," said Dick, firmly but gently. He hesitated a moment before continuing. "When my parents died, it was a long time before I could even go a day without reliving the whole thing, much less without being sad about it. It's not that easy. But we're here for you no matter what kind of day you're having, okay?"

Artemis tried to keep her head from jerking in surprise as he spoke – she'd had no idea Dick had even known his real parents, much less that he'd been present at their deaths. It seemed to be a silent rule in the Cave that you didn't talk about life before college, which suited Artemis just fine, but the result was that she knew very little about her friends' backstories, nor they about hers, and it suddenly occurred to her that there was probably a lot she didn't know. Looking around, she got the feeling that just about everyone was as shocked as her, with the exception of Wally, who was meeting Dick's eyes with that magical roommate gaze that meant they were having a conversation no one else could hear.

Then, to everyone's even greater surprise, Roy spoke up.

"I basically dropped out of life for a year when my dad died," he shrugged, the usual hard edge gone from his voice. "Well, my second dad. Don't really remember my real dad. Point is…you have a right to be messed up about it."

Megan (who was closest) laid a hand on his shoulder, which he neither acknowledged nor shrugged off.

"Thank you," said Zee tearfully after a moment, looking him in the eye. "I'm…sorry about your dads. Yours too, Dick, and your mom."

"It's fine," said Dick, giving her a small, reassuring smile. "It'll get easier eventually, I promise."

Roy nodded in agreement.

Artemis's eyes wandered around the circle, simultaneously wondering how much more there was that she didn't know about these people and hoping this didn't turn into some sobtastic sharefest, because as touching as her friends' stories were, there was no way in hell she was sharing hers. She had left all that behind for a reason.

"I never knew my biological parents," Megan offered mildly. The group turned to look at her, Zee sitting up a little straighter to show she was paying attention, so the cheerleader continued. She looked very self-conscious with her arms wrapped around her knees, staring at the ground, the fire, anywhere but at the others. "My 'sisters' are really my cousins. I've been raised as one of them for as long as I can remember, but…"

She trailed off, the crackling of the fire filling the silence.

"But what?" Zatanna prompted gently.

"Even though I never knew my parents, and always thought of myself as part of my uncle's family," Megan began, "a lot of people still treated me differently because they know who my mother and father really were. Apparently they were bad people. Violent people. I got picked on at school by kids whose parents told them I was like that, too, so…high school was pretty lonely for me. I changed schools a lot."

Wrapping her arm more comfortably around Zee's shoulder, Artemis wondered how she'd never known this about her roommate. In all honesty, she had always thought of Megan as sweet and smart but kind of sensitive, even weak – this confession shattered all that.

"But you never even met your parents," Wally pointed out incredulously. "And you're like, the nicest person ever. That's ridiculous."

Megan shrugged and looked away.

"Parents are parents, I guess," she murmured.

"But biology is not destiny," Kaldur put in, his quiet voice cutting in from where he sat a ways back from the fire. "We choose our own paths, not necessarily the ones our families would have us walk."

Artemis looked away at his words, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she felt. This was getting way too close to home.

"While we're on the topic of personal disclosure, do you mind if I ask you something, Kaldur?" Wally asked, turning away from the fire to face him.

The sophomore nodded.

"Why'd you transfer? And why BeaPor?"

(Artemis inwardly flinched at the shortening of their school's name, but this seemed a bad conversation to pick on something as trivial as that.)

"That is not an uncomplicated story," said Kaldur thoughtfully, shifting in his seat. "But to make it as short as possible…I was not brought up with the expectation that I would attend university. It was assumed I would enter the military when I came of age, and so I attended primary and secondary schools that prepared their students for that life."

Aha. That explained the early mornings and the extreme discipline.

"As graduation approached, however, my instructors put in a strong word that my abilities were better suited to academic pursuits than to military ones, and I was admitted to my prior university in Atlanta, where I studied until there was an…incident, and I transferred here."

"An incident?" asked Conner, raising an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Kaldur sighed.

"There was a threat on the life of our Head of School," he said. "I and another student – Garth, the one in the photo on my desk – intervened, and were subsequently given the option to transfer to a university with a broader educational scope and a more diverse student body. He declined. I accepted."

"Wait, I read about something like this on Reddit when I was looking at schools," Wally suddenly cut in, eyes widening. "Some crazy guy with a gun and some serious beef with the school president of this rural college in Georgia came on campus looking for trouble, but these two freshmen just up and handed his ass to him instead. That was _you?" _

Kaldur looked uncomfortable.

"That is essentially what happened, yes."

"Kaldur!" Zee exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us you were a badass?"

"Some of us had already figured it out," whistled Dick as Roy settled back, looking smug.

Artemis shook her head in bemusement. Before that night, she would have had a hard time imagining her soft-spoken friend to lay a hand on anyone, but in the context of defending others (particularly those he cared about) suddenly she could picture it very well.

"Who's next?" she half-joked, looking around at those who had yet to share something about their past.

"Don't look at me," said Conner as the group's eyes settled on him. He folded his arms over his chest. "As far as I'm concerned, my life began when I got here."

"There must be _something _you miss from home," Zee pressed.

"I don't have a home," Conner snapped, then caught sight of Zee's stricken expression and softened his own, adding in a mumble, "well I didn't have one until I got here and…and met you guys."

"I know the feeling," said Roy as the group collectively smiled and Megan reached for Conner's hand. "Well, not the sappy bit about meeting all of you. You actually kind of make my life miserable. But…life starting with college, that I get. Sometimes I think back on all these memories I have from before I got here, and it's like they're not even mine. I was a different person back then."

"If only," Artemis muttered, contemplating her own life.

"What?" asked Zee.

"Nothing."

"How about you, Wally?" Megan asked, saving Artemis from Zatanna's inevitable follow-up.

The runner shrugged, stretching and bracing his hands behind his head.

"Not much, really," he said, almost a little sheepish. "I've been lucky. Only child, two great parents, aunt and uncle who may as well be a second pair, and…yeah that's basically it. I've had it pretty easy."

"I think that just shows that great people come from all kinds of circumstances," said Megan kindly.

"Or that there's lots of ways to get real fucked up," said Dick with a grin; Wally stuck his tongue out and made a face in reply. "Love you too, man."

And then, as if on cue, the whole group turned to look at Artemis.

For one split second, the thought was tempting – tell everyone the truth, let them in on all the dirty little secrets that compromised the past she had come to college to escape, and be done with the secrecy once and for all. Then she went as far as to picture their reactions and instantly reconsidered. Best case scenario, they'd pity her, and the mere thought of pity from Megan, Kaldur, _Wally – _it made her want to put her fist through a wall.

_Dad would be proud of that reaction, _she thought grimly as an expectant silence fell over the group.

Mind racing, Artemis glanced to Wally and spoke up, wishing she were a better liar:

"Yeah uh, me too," she shrugged, trying to pull off blasé. "Not much to say. Mom, Dad, one sister, we fought like anyone else, but. You know."

If only that were even close to the truth.

To her right, Artemis could feel Zee's questioning look; over the course of their friendship she'd dropped enough hints about her relationship with her father for the other girl to know that what she had just said was a lie of some kind. But to her credit, she didn't speak up, just handed Wally the stick that was serving as their stoker so he could prod the fire back to attention, and the moment passed.

"I don't know why we never talk about this stuff," said Roy, getting up to refill his mug from the minikeg they had agreed not to open until tomorrow. "We as a, y'know, general society."

"It typically costs me an arm and a leg to persuade you to discuss personal matters," said Kaldur, unamused. "Had I known all it took was cheap beer and a campfire, I would have made kindling of your desk long ago."

"Maybe some people want to live in the moment," Artemis suggested as Roy took a feeble swipe at his…whatever Kaldur was to him (no one could ever agree, and Kaldur never blabbed). "You know, not think about all the baggage they're carrying. I don't see anything wrong with that."

"No," said Zee, giving her a look. "But I don't think it's good to keep everything bottled up, either. That's what friends are for, to help carry that baggage."

"We're about to start singing Lean on Me, aren't we?" asked Dick.

"You left your guitar in the car."

"Vocal harmony is underrated."

"We drove all day. I'm way too tired to contemplate a heartfelt campfire singalong," Conner interrupted, standing up and cracking his back. "Let's save the Kum Ba Yahing for tomorrow night, yeah?"

The group murmured their assent, and as Kaldur moved to douse the embers with water he'd procured from seemingly nowhere, they headed for the tents. Artemis deliberately avoided Zatanna, sensing an interrogation was inevitable if she didn't. This was her spring break. She wasn't going to spend it thinking about all the things she was finally learning to forget.

Ten minutes later, pajama-clad and teeth brushed, Artemis unzipped her tent and crawled in beside an already-dozing Wally, who sleepily rolled over to drape an arm over her.

"Cool your jets," she muttered, fumbling in the dark to put her toothbrush back into her bag, and to zip the tent shut – it was cold outside, and they needed the insulation. Finally she settled back down, slipping into her sleeping bag and snuggling a little closer (for warmth, she told herself).

"You never talk about your family," Wally mumbled sleepily, his arm wrapping more snugly around her. He was always most affectionate when he was drunk or sleepy. "I wanna meet 'em someday."

Artemis snorted out a derisive laugh and rolled over so that her back was to him.

"Yeah," she said, grateful for the dark that hid her face. "Sure. Someday."

* * *

><p>Someday, as cruel fate decreed, was to be the very next day.<p>

Everything started off innocuously enough. Wally and Dick cooked breakfast for the gang (which was to say Wally set the eggs on fire, Dick wrote naughty words in blueberry Braille in the pancakes and Megan evicted them both from the cooking area), and they all agreed to go on a hike, as it was looking to be a nice day and the surrounding area was quite scenic. Water bottles in tow and a picnic lunch packed into the cooler Kaldur and Conner were carrying between them, they headed out for the trailhead in the late morning in high spirits.

And then they encountered _her._

Jade was retying her shoe at a bend in the trail when they rounded it, black hair swept up into a high ponytail and a visor shading her eyes from the sun. At their approach she looked up, and when she met Artemis's eyes, saw the indignant rage in her expression, she just smirked.

"Hey there," she greeted easily, eyes flicking through the group. "You guys must be my new neighbors back at the campsite. Heard you come in last night."

"Oh no – were we too loud?" Megan half-gasped, hand over her mouth.

Jade laughed, the sound effortless and utterly fake, though Artemis had a feeling she was the only one who could tell.

"Not at all," Jade smiled, getting to her feet and tossing her hair over her shoulder. "It's creepy at night when it's too quiet anyway. How long are you all staying?"

"Rest of the week, more or less," said Wally. "You?"

"About the same."

"Are you here by yourself?" asked Kaldur, his brow furrowing in concern. And god, if the thought of Kaldur being_ concerned_ about Jadedidn't make Artemis want to break something…

"It's not so bad," Jade smiled, shrugging. "I like travelling alone. It's more interesting, and you get to meet such fascinating new people."

On the word 'new,' her eyes flicked to Artemis, and a smirk crossed her face.

"Well, we were headed up for the cliff trail," said Zatanna, shouldering her knapsack. "If you're not walking with anyone, do you want to come with us? We'll be neighbors all week, after all. We may as well get to know each other."

"Oh, I'd love that," said Jade, and the subtle gleam of triumph in her eyes made Artemis want to rip her own hair out. But if Jade hadn't revealed their relation yet, maybe she didn't intend to at all, and after last night, telling everyone that this was her sister would only make them more eager to get to know her. The best that Artemis could do was wait, and hope that the poisonous underside of her sister's personality surfaced in time for the others to choose to keep their distance all by themselves.

Biding time, though, proved to be a supreme test of Artemis's patience.

Through that hike, Jade managed to ingratiate herself to just about everyone, with the sort-of exception of Conner, who was grudgingly polite but seemed irritated that an outsider had dared breach their ranks. With Megan, she cooed over recipes, promised to help her make dinner that night, which the cheerleader began planning immediately. With Dick, she complimented the many gadgets on his belt, got him talking about his stupid tech toys. With Zee and Kaldur, she didn't even have to try; their natural faith and interest in other people had them tangled up in the web of lies she'd spun about her life instantly.

The sight of Jade charming the hell out of her friends made Artemis's skin crawl, but never more than when they rounded a bend to a higher elevation and Roy's phone abruptly went off. They'd popped into a reception zone, it seemed, and he had eight text messages waiting for him from the past 30 hours, all from Jade, ranging from mildly flirtatious to downright explicit, texts which he read out loud to the group, much to her well-concealed amusement.

"It's this crazy bitch who wants to jump my bones," he explained as she laughed.

"I don't blame her though," she told him with a coy smile. "I mean, you're a good-looking man. She probably just wants some of that."

And damn Roy if he didn't just smirk and take it. At the back of the pack, Artemis seethed.

They reached camp in the late afternoon, at which point Artemis was pretty sure that if Jade took one more long, suggestive drink from her water bottle, she was going to hurl it off the next cliff they found.

"You okay?" Wally asked as she dumped her backpack less-than-gently onto the ground near their tent. "You've been acting weird all day. Dick's weirdass pancakes giving you trouble or what?"

"Don't worry about it," she snapped, and stomped off towards the showers before he could follow up.

Dinner was delicious, which somehow put Artemis in a worse mood. It was bad enough that Jade had infiltrated her new life. But to have the others fawning over her cooking, her style, how _cool _it was that she was out here by herself…it was tempting just to tell them all the reason Jade knew all this crap, that she'd been trained from a young age to lie, to win favor, to fend for herself, all in preparation for a life spent doing the dirty work of the country's underbelly, a life Artemis had rejected in coming to college to learn how to make an honest living. But of course, revealing that would mean revealing a host of other things that her friends really didn't need to know. So she bit her tongue, sulked at the greatest distance she could manage without drawing attention, and wondered if deliberately breaking her own ankle would be enough to cut the trip short.

Dinnertime turned into campfire time, with Dick and Roy retrieving their respective guitars from their respective cars (why they needed two guitars was beyond Artemis, but apparently it was a manly pride thing). Some fared better than others with the singing. Zatanna wasn't afraid to harmonize and Dick had a voice like a teen heartthrob pop star, but neither Conner nor Artemis could hold a tune in a bucket, nor could Artemis remember the words to even the most basic of songs. More than once, Wally turned around to give her an amused look, forcing her to wonder how easy it would be to talk Dick into switching tents that night. It wasn't _her _fault her dad had been too busy teaching her to pick locks or break wrists to play her a record or two.

Jade, damn her, sounded lovely.

"How long have you been playing?" the older girl asked Roy after they'd finished with a dishearteningly sincere rendition of 'With a Little Help From My Friends.' Over the course of the evening, she'd maneuvered herself until she was sitting just beside him on the log bench, her hand tracing patterns on the wood beside his thigh.

"Uh, I don't know, since I was like thirteen?" Roy replied, idly plucking out a pleasant arpeggiation. Artemis would have thought he was oblivious but for the way his eyes kept flicking towards Jade. The stupid bastard was just playing it cool. "Foster dad had me start when I came to live with him, said it would 'help me adjust' or whatever. I just wanted to pick up chicks."

"Yeah?" laughed Jade, edging yet closer. "And how'd that work out for you, Romeo?"

"It's really late," Artemis interrupted loudly, standing up. "I think we should go to bed. We've got a long day tomorrow."

The guitar-playing died away.

"We do?" blinked Zatanna.

"We hadn't planned out tomorrow yet," Wally pointed out.

"Well I don't know about you all but I was planning to make the most of it," said Artemis, folding her arms over her chest. "Which I can't do if I'm tired and cranky."

"You're already cranky," Conner pointed out.

"You're one to talk."

"It _is _getting pretty late," Megan conceded, smoothing her skirt as she stood up. "Maybe everyone who wants to can stay up and talk, but quietly, so people who want to sleep can do that?"

"Sounds fair," Wally shrugged. "What _are _we doing tomorrow, though? I'm curious."

"I know of a great swimming spot," Jade offered. "I could walk you there."

"That sounds great," said Zee excitedly.

"Isn't it a little cold for swimming?" Artemis objected. No way was Jade taking over _her _spring break two days in a row.

Roy gave her a look.

"Don't be such a wuss. It's plenty warm during the day."

"Maybe you could show us like, on a map," Artemis said to Jade, her eyes flashing in what she hoped was a clear threat. "So you don't have to waste a day chaperoning all of us."

"Oh, it's really no trouble," said Jade, the corners of her lips curling up in a damnably pleased smirk."I insist."

And that, fates be damned, sealed the deal. Brushing her teeth with considerable vengeance some fifteen minutes later, Artemis silently wondered what she had done in a past life to deserve this. College was supposed to have been a fresh start. A place where she didn't have to be her father's daughter, her sister's sister. And here was Jade, ruining everything.

"Someone's not happy," a familiar voice drawled as she left the little shack of a bathroom.

Without thinking, Artemis kicked out at her sister, who simply laughed and danced aside, further into the shadows.

"Missed you too, little sister," she said, eyes gleaming. "Oh, don't worry, all your little friends are still at the campfire. I thought we could have a little chat."

"Let's start with you explaining why you're here," Artemis snapped.

"Because I wanted to see you," her sister responded, voice sickly sweet. "I wanted to see how _fabulous _your new life is, how _awesome _your college friends are, how _amazing _a time you're having. And of course, I thought it was only polite to introduce myself in person after all those text messages I sent your RA…and that he sent me back."

"I could tell him," Artemis threatened. "I could tell all of them who you really are."

"You could," Jade agreed, shrugging. "But you won't. You don't want them knowing that any more than I do."

"Maybe I'm done keeping this family's secrets," said Artemis.

"A bold threat, but an empty one," said Jade. "And besides…I took out some insurance just in case you _did _decide to grow up and tell them the truth."

Artemis glowered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means Dad is in this part of the country right now, and if you ruin my fun, I will call him and tell him exactly where you and your friends are."

Artemis's eyes narrowed.

"You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I, though?" said Jade. "You're welcome to find out but…I think we'd both prefer you didn't. Good night, sister dearest. Give my regards to your cute little boyfriend. The scrawny ginger _is _your boyfriend, right?"

"Yes," Artemis snapped, ignoring the 'scrawny' comment – Wally was actually not so scrawny when you got his shirt off. "And the other ginger is someone else's. So back off."

"Funny, I don't hear _him_ saying that," smirked Jade, and disappeared into the shadows for good.

* * *

><p>Swimming was not a total loss. Despite Jade's obnoxiously sexy green one-piece and Wally's incessant interrogation about her recent bad mood, Artemis couldn't deny that it was a gorgeous day, and that the lake to which Jade had brought them was stunning, all clear blues and perfect solitude. Moreover, the picnic lunch Conner and Zee had packed was delicious, and there was nothing in the universe like watching Kaldur swim. His obvious ease was captivating, and more than once she found herself staring in a totally not creepy, 100% platonic sort of way, wondering where the hell in Georgia they raised kids like that.<p>

Once again Jade joined them for dinner, and once again Artemis was forced to hold her tongue as her sister shamelessly flirted her way through the meal, even going so far as to grab Roy's ass while threatening to "put some meat on his bones" (with her cooking, naturally). Kaldur remained silent and seemingly neutral through it all, leaving Artemis confused – was he too polite to say anything, or did he honestly not mind? (Alternately, as Wally suggested that night, was he hoping for a threesome? – Artemis had decked him for that.)

Day Four of spring break began with Dick and Wally serenading Artemis awake with an infuriating imitation of her own tuneless, wordless attempt at The Circle of Life from two nights prior. It ended with Zee falling asleep on Artemis's shoulder at the campfire, despite the very loud crunching of Wally's 14th S'more. In between was an odd combination of hiking, exploring, listening to Conner identify every goddamn plant in the forest, and deliberately avoiding Jade, who by now seemed to have become part of the gang. At one point in her life it would have been a dream come true – finally getting along with her sister, sharing friends and memories – but this was different. Jade had forced her way in, and the harmony was all pretend.

And of course, unforgivably, she'd brought Dad into it.

"I don't see why you don't like her," Wally was saying on Thursday morning as he tied his sneakers. They were about to venture out for more firewood, as their supply was finally running low. "She seems cool, and she's been really friendly to us so far."

"Too friendly," Artemis put in, frowning deeply. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"That's not fair," Wally objected, straightening out. "She's just a flirt. So am I, and I don't see you protesting every time our plans end up including me."

"I didn't like you when we first met either."

"Yeah you did," Wally teased, leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek, which she pretended to find distasteful. "I'm impossible not to like."

"I find it quite easy, actually," remarked Dick as he strolled by.

"You're a man of many talents, Grayson," said Artemis.

"I know."

"In any case, I think you should give her a chance," said Wally, once Dick had wandered back to wherever Dick was going. "You just met her. If you'd judged all of us as quickly as you're judging her, where would you be now?"

"Actually, I pretty much had you all pegged from day one. So I'd be right here."

That was a lie, but she didn't want to have this conversation.

Wally sighed.

"Okay, fine. I don't know what your deal is, but I wish you'd actually talk to me about it," he said, turning away. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>Had Artemis known how the trip was going to end beforehand, she would have done one of several things to prepare for it, not the least of which was determining how much Dick actually knew about all of them.<p>

Apparently the answer was "everything."

Things came to a head on Friday night, when after a long night of fireside chatting, Jade casually brought up that her tent wasn't very well insulated, that it had a rip (one Artemis distinctly did not remember from the day before), that she "could barely sleep" with the chill at night.

A silence descended on the group as they exchanged looks – that was that say that Artemis could feel the others doing so; she herself was staring at her sister in disbelief, wondering if she was getting at what it looked like she was getting at. And then finally, Kaldur spoke:

"I do not mind the cold," he said. "If it would be of help…you could take my place. A second body does more for warmth than any blanket or tent."

Before anyone could respond, Artemis was on her feet.

"Okay that's enough," she said. Instantly, all eyes were on her.

"Enough of what?" Jade asked innocently, though her eyes were flashing a warning, as though reminding Artemis of her threat.

"No, Jade. I'm done with your games."

"Arty!" Zee whispered. "Don't be rude!"

"I'm not being rude," said Artemis, shaking her head. "Not now, at least. I was rude to you all before when I was dishonest with you about my family. I'm sorry. I lied."

"Your family?" repeated Wally, brows knitting in confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I told you my family was like anyone else's," said Artemis as Jade slowly rose from her seat, hand slipping towards her pocket. "That's not true. My family…well, it sucks, let's put it that way."

"Harsh, sister dearest."

"…sister? !"

"Yeah," said Artemis, taking a deep breath and looking around the circle at the shocked expressions. "Sorry, everyone. This is Jade, my sister. She's a liar, a thief, a backstabber, and everything else our dad taught us to be."

"Your dad taught you to – "

"Just let me finish, Conner," Artemis cut him off. "Look. My dad is not a good guy, to put it lightly. He's wanted in about six states for all the stunts he's pulled, not the least of which is threatening to kill me and my mom if we ever ratted him out. I've had a restraining order against him for the last three years, and Campus Security will arrest him on sight if he ever comes to find me at college, but that's not much good to us out here."

She stuffed her hands in her pockets, shoulders hunched defensively as the group stared at her.

"This is a joke, right?" Roy asked, sounding incredulous. "That's not a family. That's a fucking soap opera."

"She's telling the truth," said Dick, surprising everyone.

"Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how the hell do _you _know?" asked Artemis, turning to him.

"I know everything."

"Right, of course. How could I forget?"

"Look, this is all very sweet, but as I seem to have overstayed my welcome, I'll be going now," said Jade, holding up her phone. "It was lovely meeting you all. Give my regards to Dad, Miss Arty. He should be here in a few hours, if he obeys all the speed limits…you know how he loves playing by the rules."

And she slipped her thumb onto the "send" button on her phone.

* * *

><p>A tiny beep was all it took to ruin everything, or so Artemis thought.<p>

As it turned out, her friends were about a thousand times cooler than that.

"So I take it your dad is on his way here?" asked Wally as Jade disappeared back to her campsite; no one tried to stop her, though Roy was staring at his phone in horror like he'd just realized what an ass he'd made of himself all week. "And that this is very bad news for us?"

"Yeah," Artemis sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to ruin the trip but I just…I couldn't stand her lying anymore. I couldn't stand _me _lying anymore."

"Why did you?" asked Conner. "Lie, I mean."

Somehow his question just sounded curious, not accusatory.

"Because…shit, I don't know, if you had that kind of family history, would you want to share it?" Artemis asked, frowning deeply. "No one wants friends with that kind of baggage."

"Were you listening the other night?" asked Dick, raising an eyebrow. "We've all got baggage. Maybe yours is a little more…ongoing than some of ours, but give us a little credit. We're no strangers to daddy issues."

"Well my daddy issue is about to become your daddy issue real fast," Artemis pointed out. "We can argue this all out later, but right now we need to get out of here before he shows up."

"Why?" asked Wally. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Are you stupid?" Artemis asked as she looked around at all her friends, sitting around the fire like there was nothing to worry about. "Were you listening to what I just said? My dad doesn't fuck around. He's mad that I escaped off to real school because with a degree, I won't have to resort to the family business, and if he finds me out here he'll do anything he has to to make me come with him. Including hurting all of you."

"Fleeing seems a short-sighted solution," Kaldur remarked. "Perhaps it would be better if you showed him that you are committed to the path you have chosen. That he holds no sway over you."

"That's a cute thought but I'm not talking about arm wrestling here," Artemis pressed. "If he finds us here, he's going to do damage. Serious damage. And I'm not letting that happen to any of you."

"Kaldur has a point," said Dick, a look in his eye that Artemis recognized all too well. He was plotting something. God, her dad was coming to get her, and Dick Grayson was _plotting _something. "You say your dad is wanted in six states. If you don't mind my asking…which states?"

And so it began.

* * *

><p>The sleeping bags were rolled, the coolers repacked, the tents unpitched and shoved haphazardly into trunks and backseats. Conner, Kaldur and Roy were standing by the open hatchback of Megan's van trying to fit the last of the gang's gear in when the faint rumble of an engine announced the approach of a new vehicle – an oversized pickup truck, wheels splattered with mud, bed covered with a tarp.<p>

_Typical, _Artemis thought to herself as she watched from her hiding spot. Her dad had always been old-fashioned like that. She tried not to freeze up as the truck rolled to a halt and her father hopped down from the cabin, approaching her three friends.

"You boys seen a girl around here, blonde hair, athletic, 'bout five foot seven inches?" Lawrence asked, spitting into the dirt.

The three exchanged looks.

"No," said Conner flatly. "Can't help you there."

Lawrence cocked an eyebrow.

"Really?" he asked, his tone of voice making it clear he already knew the answer. "Goes by Artemis? Artemis Crock?"

"Haven't heard of her," said Roy, turning away to shove his pillow into the jumbled mess of Megan's trunk.

Without warning, a large hand shot out to grab his shoulder and spin him around.

"Why do I feel like you're lying to me?" Lawrence had begun to growl when Kaldur's own hand descended on his wrist, pushing it firmly away from Roy's shoulder.

"There is no need for violence," the swimmer said calmly. "Nor for baseless accusations."

Lawrence's hand slipped towards his pocket, and Artemis recognized her cue when she saw it. Grabbing the walkie-talkie on her belt, she lifted it to her lips and spoke:

"Okay, go."

Right on time, two figures approached from the dirt path to the restrooms. The green of Artemis's favorite hoodie blended in well with the trees, but not well enough – at their approach, Lawrence's head jerked, prompting the other three to turn too, and the girls had been spotted.

"Run!" Kaldur ordered with a low shout, and they did, turning tail to bolt back into the forest. Lawrence took off after them, the boys gave pursuit, and in moments, the campsite was deserted.

"Good luck," Artemis murmured, biting her lip and trying not to worry too much about Zee and in particular about Megan, who had donned her sweatshirt for their ruse. The cheerleader had always had a way with disguises, and with the hood up, a single glance would lead you to believe she really was Artemis. As she turned her attention to the now-deserted campsite, Artemis lifted the walkie-talkie to her lips once more. "Okay, guys, you're clear."

She could have sworn she heard Dick cackle as she made for the tree that was to be her hideout for the rest of their plot, but maybe it was just her imagination. Jumping up to catch the first branch, she swung herself up to the next, then from there it was easy enough, rather like the climb up to the Summit if you felt like taking the dangerous route.

Within minutes she was at the top, where she had a few of the surroundings; a flash of color through the trees below alerted her to the chase. Megan and Zee had just reached the tripwire they had set up earlier. Not for the first time, Artemis found herself wishing she were the one down there, taking the risks, but the others had insisted – under no circumstances was she going to make direct contact with her father. So instead, she simply got to watch as the two girls hopped the wire and continued on towards the lake, while her father hit it at full speed and went sprawling with a shout of rage she could hear even at her distance.

"How's it going?" she asked into Channel 2, which connected to Dick and Wally's walkie-talkie – she couldn't see them, but the hood of the pickup truck was up, which was a good sign.

"Swimmingly," Wally's voice crackled out of the speakers. He sounded obnoxiously cheery. "How's the tree?"

"Tree-like," reported Artemis.

"Are you _pining _for us?"

"Dear God, Grayson, if we all survive this, I swear I will kill you."

"Not if we_ leaf_ you behind," Wally quipped.

"West, I will – "

"Or put her in the _trunk_."

Groaning, Artemis gave up and turned her attention back to the others. Her dad was back up, but the boys had passed him by now, and were far enough ahead to ensure their safety but not so far that they risked losing him, which was the point.

"This is Alpha Squad," Zee's voice crackled out of Artemis's walkie-talkie abruptly – the other girl was a little out of breath, and Artemis had lost sight of them, but she didn't sound panicked. "We're at the pits."

"Good," Artemis nodded, peering through the trees to try and figure out where they were. "Con, Kal and Roy aren't too far behind you."

"Excellent. Everything ready on the other side?"

"Hard to tell with those two but I'd say it's coming along," said Artemis, casting another glance over at the cars. Dick had clambered into the cabin and was fiddling with something on the dashboard. "We should be good within a minute or so."

"Good. Okay, I hear them coming," said Zee. "We're getting in position. This is going to work, Arty, just wait and see."

Chewing on her lip, Artemis lifted her binoculars, adjusting the focus until she could make out the faraway shapes of Megan and Zee, their backs turned as they "caught their breath" on a small hill off the trail. Her father was rounding a corner, still in hot pursuit.

"Roy, you idiot, get up, get up," Artemis hissed as the upperclassman headed straight for the mudpit at the end of the path, but he veered right at the last second, running up into the wooded area instead, then moving around to stand with Conner and Kaldur. She breathed again. Everything was in place.

Her dad rounded the last curve in the trail, came into sight of her friends, when abruptly, instead of his feet striking hard trail, they hit soft mud.

_Very _soft mud.

Before he had a chance to register what was going on, three pairs of hands were grasping his jacket, pulling him more firmly into the muck – he threw a punch at Kaldur, but Conner's hand smacked his arm away, and through Zee's walkie-talkie Artemis heard something that sounded like "don't mess with my roomie, bitch."

Within moments, Lawrence was thoroughly entrenched, thigh-deep in the oozing mud that was the bane of that area. Close to the lake, the pits were a bitch. It had taken three of them twenty minutes to extract Zee when she'd accidentally gotten stuck on the day they'd gone swimming – it would be a good several hours before he could hope to free himself. Artemis felt her heart lurch in excitement. Had they actually pulled this off?

"Alpha and beta, reporting in," Zee's voice sounded out of the walkie-talkie. "Everything look good to you, fearless leader?"

From the top of the tree, Artemis couldn't hide her smile.

"Better than good," she said. "It's beautiful."

"You wanna see something _really _beautiful?" came Wally's voice. "Wait 'till you see what Dick did with your dad's truck."

What Dick had done with her dad's truck was indeed beautiful, though the "Just Thwarted" sign on the back and the leftover bean cans he'd tied to the trailer hitch might have been a bit much. As the eight of them regrouped, though, Artemis was too full of gratitude to consider anything else. All that time defending her secrets, and they'd been more than ready for them all this time. How had she gotten so lucky? Where did people like this even come from?

"So," she said as Conner fit the last of their supplies into Roy's trunk and rejoined the little circle they'd formed. "I…that was…I don't really know what to say."

"You could start with 'thank you,'" Roy suggested.

"Thank you," said Artemis, for once not arguing. He looked startled.

"Park rangers are on their way, right?" Zee checked.

Dick nodded.

"They received an anonymous tip about a wanted criminal who was spotted on the lake trail," he said, winking at his roommate. "Good to know some people still do their civic duty these days, eh?"

"Such a relief," Wally grinned.

"Anyway, are we ready to head out?" Megan asked. She was still wearing Artemis's hoodie, but somehow that just felt right, so she didn't ask for it back. "I can't wait to have a real shower. It's been great but…I miss the Cave."

"Me too," Zee admitted. "This trip was really great, though. I feel like I know everyone a little bit better than I did before."

"It is a start," Kaldur agreed with a rare smile. "Shall we head out?"

The others nodded, breaking up and heading for the vehicles. Wally cast a glance at Dick.

"Same cars?"

Artemis didn't even have time to look at Roy and Conner before they'd responded, as one,

"NO."

* * *

><p>"Roy?"<p>

"Blondie?"

"Why do you have my sister's visor?"

"She left it behind."

"And?"

"What was I supposed to do, leave it there?"

"That would seem reasonable, yeah."

"Well I didn't. It's not a big deal, now shut up and let me drive."

"Roy?"

"Argh. What?"

"See that car up there? The one we're about to catch up with?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That's Jade's car. When we pass her, you're going to stop and give her the hat back, all right?"

"Jesus Christ. Really?"

"Really."

They pulled into the right shoulder lane and up beside the Jeep, matching its pace for a moment.

"Hey!" Artemis yelled, rolling down the window and leaning out. "You left something."

"I thought I left _you," _said Jade thoughtfully, rolling down her own window. "But it seems I underestimated your little team."

Team. Artemis liked the sound of that.

"Here," said Roy, taking the visor from Artemis and tossing across the space between the two cars – it sailed through the window to land neatly in the passenger seat of the Jeep.

"You're good at that," Jade smirked. "You throw hats a lot, or what?"

"You could say it's a hobby."

"Dad's going to get picked up by the cops," Artemis called. "You don't have to do what he wants you to do, Jade. You can do something else with your life."

"I know," said Jade, shrugging as she drove. "I just can't imagine anything else being as…_stimulating_. But who knows. Maybe I'll find my own group of misfits and form some kind of weird friendship cult. Seems to have worked for you."

"Yeah, it kinda did."

There was a pause, just the rush of the road and the trees surrounding it. In the distance, the road narrowed; before long they would have to travel single-file again, and inevitably part ways.

"Artemis," said Jade, her eyes flicking to the mirror so she could look at her sister as they cruised along.

"Yeah?"

"I like your friends."

Roy dropped back, nosing into place behind the Jeep; meanwhile, Dick's sedan gunned behind them and veered into the wrong lane to pass, while Megan's van hung back, cautious and law-abiding as ever.

"Yeah," Artemis murmured, settling back into the back seat. "Yeah, me too."


	9. u grad, bro?

_The final chapter. Thanks to all who have been along for the ride - I had such a fun time writing this. Special thanks to Liz, Buck and Laura, without whose help I would not have been able to finish._

* * *

><p>March ended. April waxed and began to wane. May loomed, and punched Artemis in the face with the truth – their time together was coming to a close.<p>

* * *

><p>"So, room draw," Artemis casually remarked one late spring evening – they were in the study lounge, engaging in various degrees of actual study (on a scale of zero to Kaldur, Artemis ranked about a Conner). "It's in, like, two weeks. Are we gonna talk about this or what?"<p>

From behind his physical chemistry textbook, Wally frowned.

"I don't want to think about next year yet," he said. "Can we not?"

"I mean, technically speaking, we could not," Dick conceded, looking up from his laptop. "But I doubt you'll like the results in the long term."

Wally made a face at his roommate.

"I mean, what's the big deal?" Conner grunted from the chair in the corner. The others turned to look at him. "We're just gonna live together again anyway, aren't we?"

"I'd hoped so," said Artemis, looking around the room for contradiction, which no one gave. Good first sign. "But you know...it's a little more complicated than just deciding that's what we want. Are we going to gamble on getting rooms near each other, or go for a friendship suite, or what?"

"A friendship suite sounds good," said Megan; several people nodded.

"Man, I just wanna live here again though," Wally sighed wistfully, putting his book down on the table. "I like my room. I like the Summit. I even like my roommate once in a while."

"Lies," said Dick with a grin. "Your love for me is constant as the stars above."

"Or Roy's BAC," Conner muttered.

Wally and Dick exchanged smirks. In recent weeks, it seemed that Time Remaining to Graduation and Roy Harper's Sobriety were directly correlated, which was to say that Artemis couldn't remember the last time she'd seen their RA sober.

"Okay, let's not get sappy here," she cut in as Kaldur frowned at his computer screen in disapproval. "Focus, everyone. I don't think it's an option for us to live here again. This is first-year housing, isn't it?"

"Kaldur's a sophomore and he lives here," Zatanna pointed out.

"Kaldur's a transfer," said Artemis, glancing over at him. He was reading something on his laptop, but she knew from his reaction to Conner's jab at Roy that he was paying attention. "I think that's different."

"Yeah, it is," Dick confirmed. "But you know. Housing designations can change, with the right...leverage."

"Are you hinting you have some kind of say in this?"

"I would never be so oblique."

"Don't be coy, Grayson. Can you or can't you make it happen?"

"Yeah," Dick grinned, leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head. "Yeah, totally. I can get Bruce to put in a word. It's not like we're asking for extra housing, just asking for a redistribution of who lives where. Should be a done deal."

"Excellent," said Artemis as Megan clapped her hands together excitedly. "And I doubt any other sophomores would try to get these rooms in room draw because who wants to live in freshman housing when you can get better?"

"Us," said Wally proudly.

"Exactly."

"Uh, guys, one problem," Conner said. He turned to Zatanna. "Where are _you _living next year?"

Zee smiled a little awkwardly, rubbing her arm as she looked around at the others.

"Oh," said Wally, a look of dismayed realization passing over his face. "Shit, yeah, you should totally come live with us, Zee, which means..."

"...the Cave is a no-go," Artemis finished, nodding and trying not to let her disappointment show. There just weren't enough rooms for all of them. But no, this was good. Better to have Zee and not have the Cave than the other way around.

"It wouldn't have been the same anyway," said Megan diplomatically. "With Roy gone and everything. The next RA might have followed through on reporting us for the things on the roof, or all of Wally's science equipment, or any of the other ways we break school policy."

"True," Wally conceded.

"If I may interject, I believe have a solution to both these problems," said Kaldur, finally looking up from his computer.

The room turned to look at him.

"Oh?"

"Yes," he smiled. "My application to the Residential Advisor program has just been accepted."

Wally gaped.

"You applied to be an RA?" he asked incredulously.

"I did," Kaldur confirmed.

"...why!?"

"Well. As I already spend most of my spare time cleaning up your messes, listening to your problems and dissuading you from your own terrible ideas, I thought I might as well be paid for it."

From somewhere down the hall, there was a drunken cackle, then the click of a door shutting.

"Don't think we didn't hear that, Harper!" Artemis yelled after it.

"In any case, if you six can work out a division of the other three rooms that is amenable to everyone, I am certain I could request to be posted on this hall," said Kaldur, looking around.

"Oh, that would be perfect," Megan gushed.

"Wait, okay, so how would this work?" asked Artemis, tapping her pencil against her leg. "Kaldur takes the RA single, Wally and Dick stay together because they're the only ones who can possibly put up with each other, and...uh..."

Megan and Conner shared a look that everyone graciously ignored. A moment passed, like they were having some kind of telepathic conversation, then they looked back to the others.

"And you and Zee take our room, and I move across the hall with Conner," Megan finished.

"Are you sure?" Artemis asked. "You guys can definitely think on it if you want, it's – "

" – it's fine," Conner assured her, then shifted in his chair, looking sheepish. "Let's be real, it's uh, not that different from what we've been doing this year anyway."

There was an awkward silence in which no one could really disagree.

"It is settled, then," said Kaldur, shutting his laptop. "Dick, if you would, speak to your father as soon as possible. I will submit my acceptance to the Campus Life office and request this particular location. The rest will be determined at room draw."

"You got it, fearless leader," Dick grinned.

"All in?" asked Artemis, looking around at her friends, who unanimously smiled back – even Conner.

"All in."

* * *

><p>Early May at Beatus Portum, and it was the nicest day they'd had yet. The quad was green as a lantern, the sky blue as a beetle, the sun black as a canary (which was to say, yellow). In the shade, Artemis flicked out a big blanket towards Zee and the two of them lowered it to the grass, creating a comfy space for their picnic.<p>

"Do we need the second?" Zatanna wondered out loud, reaching for the other blanket they'd brought.

"Nah," said Conner, flopping down onto the ground and slinging his backpack off his shoulder. "We'll fit."

"We're down two anyway," Artemis pointed out. "And we can always put it out later if we decide we want more space."

"All right," Zee relented, and took a seat beside Conner as Megan knelt and opened the first of the picnic baskets. "Let's eat before Wally shows up and eats everything. I'm starved."

There was a mumbled chorus of 'amen's as the others took their seats and began to unpack the spread they'd brought. Megan had prepared it with help from Kaldur and "help" from Conner, and the plan was to eat it while they watched the final matchup of the top-ranking intramural Ultimate Frisbee teams, one of which was the Titans, whose star player happened to be a certain Dick Grayson. Apparently he had invented an entirely new pass, a fast, high-arcing shot that the Ultimate community had dubbed the "Flying Grayson." Naturally, they had found this out only when his photo had showed up on the Sports Spotlight page of the student newspaper, since he hadn't actually told any of them.

You had to try hard to be _that_ weird, Artemis insisted.

"Heyyyy," slurred a new voice. Artemis mentally prepared an eyeroll. "M'I late?"

"Not by your appalling standards of timeliness, no," came Kaldur's seamless reply as Roy flopped down beside him, bottle in hand. Kaldur gave him a look. "It is eleven in the morning, my friend. Had you considered waiting until, say, the afternoon to imbibe?"

"Nnnnnope."

"You bring any for the rest of us?" Artemis asked, prodding him in the shoulder so he'd move out of the way. He was blocking the potato salad.

"Also nope."

"I hate you too, Harper."

"Hey!" called a markedly friendlier voice, and the six of them looked up to see Dick jogging towards them, Wally at his side, both of them in the jerseys of the Titans – black, with a bright yellow, segmented T emblazoned on the chest. "You made it."

"Of course we did," Megan smiled warmly. "We're here to cheer you on! Both of you."

"Cheer louder for Wally," Dick joked. "He'll need it. He doesn't even know the rules."

"I do too," Wally grumbled under his breath. "Most of them."

"Remind me again how you ended up in this game?" Artemis asked, raising an eyebrow at her boyfriend.

"Well our fastest cutter – those're the designated catchers, they have to sprint ahead of everybody else – sprained his ankle at a party last weekend and we needed somebody fast," Dick explained, shrugging. "Also, I thought it would be hilarious."

"There we go," Artemis smirked, spotting the real reason.

"Have you eaten?" Kaldur asked them, reaching to pick up two plates.

"Nah, we're good," said Wally; Zee and Artemis exchanged stunned looks. _Wally turning down food?_

"I took him out to Parasite before this," Dick told them. "In exchange for him bailing the team out and all."

"Ah," came the knowing response – Parasite was an all-you-can-eat buffet, a favorite of Beatus Portum students with limitless appetites and limited budgets. Even Wally would be satisfied for a few hours after a visit. Dick wasn't on the Dean's List for nothing.

"Well, play hard and good luck," said Zatanna, offering the two boys a smile. "We'll be rooting for you."

"'Course you will," said Dick with a dashing grin, turning to go. "And we won't disappoint. I promise. Save me a cookie."

"Save me four," said Wally.

Artemis rolled her eyes affectionately.

"Yes, Pumba."

"Hakuna Matata, bitches."

And with a wink, he was off.

* * *

><p>That game marked the first of many, many end-of-year extravaganzas.<p>

The day after Dick's inhuman projectile control and Wally's fleetfooted finesse clinched the Ultimate championship for the Titans, the gang crowded into the bleachers once again at Conner's final rugby game. Though the drama wasn't nearly on the level of last semester's Homecoming football game, it was still fun to watch their friend slamming an endless stream of enormous dudes into the ground. After all, he was very good at it – some people were just blessed with special gifts. Conner's was being impervious to injury, change, and sarcasm.

That Thursday night was Zee's last orchestra concert, for which they cheered no less loudly, albeit at more societally approved intervals (Dick nearly had a seizure when Conner tried to clap between movements). Despite taking music theory the previous semester, Artemis was still fairly clueless about classical music, but the sight of Zatanna in a tailored suit coaxing warm, mellifluous sound out of the curvaceous cello between her knees was enough to make the straightest of women swoon, and given that Artemis wasn't even the straightest of women, she didn't particularly care that she had no idea what was going on. Mahler who?

Some days later came Wally's semester-end cross-country meet, in which he was running a 10k. Artemis woke him the morning of with a kiss and a disgustingly large breakfast, one of which was met with his garbled enthusiasm (and it wasn't the kiss). Track was more Wally's thing than cross-country, but he was certainly no slouch running long distance either, and as usual, the gang took the opportunity to turn out in fine form: they placed themselves at intervals along the race route, each holding a single letter on a piece of posterboard, so that by the end of the race he had passed them all and read their message: "GO WALY."

(Roy had been holding the second L. Predictably, he had grown impatient and gone off to get a beer mid-race, exactly when Wally had run past his post. Fortunately Wally had gotten the point anyway, taken their advice to 'go,' and had crossed the finish line in second place to the sight of all seven of them cheering madly. In retrospect, Kaldur and Dick agreed, it would have been more prudent to have given Roy the G of 'GO,' but at least he'd made it for the endgame.)

And finally, there had been Artemis's last derby bout.

In her mind, nothing would ever compete with the thrill of that first match against Del Luz, but it was a fierce one anyway, not in the least because the referee was "chemically compromised," as Raquel had put it while dumping out the rest of Roy's flask. By the end of the last jam, Artemis had a winning record, several new bruises, and a burgeoning distaste for the taste of the gym floor. It was worth it, though, to feel her teammates' arms around her in a sweaty, blissful huddle of victory, and to hear Raquel tearfully demand they return to play come autumn, and call them all her "sisters." For the first time in years, Artemis didn't inwardly flinch at the word.

* * *

><p>"Birds of Prey for life!" Raquel declared, raising a red plastic cup towards her teammates – the team echoed the cheer, and they all drank heartily, basking in the afterglow of their success. Following the match, they had all showered, changed, and gathered in the suite Kara, Raven and Kory shared to celebrate. Also present were various affiliates of the team: the trio's suitemate Bette, former member and Halloween lifesaver Donna, various boyfriends (plus one girlfriend, Renee's) and Artemis's hallmates, who had been warmly welcomed as the team's official groupies. Roy was also due to show, but he was taking his sweet time, as usual.<p>

"Crank it, Grayson," Raquel instructed (Dick had somehow become the unofficial DJ of whatever party he attended). He obeyed, and as music hummed through the room, Artemis grabbed Megan's arm and pulled her into the throng to dance. Conner, alarmed, hurried after his girlfriend, exactly as Artemis had expected, and soon the three of them were in the thick of it, caught up in the warm, happy mess of humanity that was the year's last derby party.

Rollers took their fun seriously. Artemis knew her limits, and did not attempt to go shot for shot with the team's heavier hitters (namely Kara and her twin sister Karen), though neither Conner nor Wally took so much care, the latter going so far as to challenge Karen to a shoot-off, which Kaldur wisely stopped before it could get off the ground. Watching him switch out Roy's vodka tonic for a cup of water later that evening, Artemis guessed he'd had enough dealing with drunken idiots of late, and couldn't blame him.

1 AM saw the suite and its inhabitants in a state of delightful disarray. Wally was leaning heavily against Artemis's shoulder, babbling into her ear about A) how not drunk he was, B) the plethora of attractive ladies in the room and how it was a miracle she hadn't left him for one or all of them and C) the physics of roller derby. Zee was experimenting with the last of these, tottering around the room in Raven's skates while Raven and Kate, Renee's girlfriend, laughed uncontrollably and kept her from falling or breaking anything (human or otherwise). Raquel and Roy, who had been tearing up the dance floor earlier that evening, had finally succeeded in dragging Kaldur out to join them, where he was standing quite still with his arms folded over his chest, trying and failing to look like he wasn't having a good time. In the corner, Conner had retreated to an armchair, Megan in his lap, where the two were being tipsily affectionate with one another, and Dick, for his part, was busy being fawned over by an obviously smitten Kory.

"I'm gonna miss this over the summer," Artemis confessed into Wally's ear, a sad frown flitting across her face as she thought of those long months ahead.

"Don' say that, babe," he slurred sincerely, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and giving her a gentle squeeze. "We'll all find ways t'see each other."

Artemis smiled, but the feeling never made it past her lips. She just wasn't so sure. All their lives were so full, so busy, and most of them had real families back home, other people who loved them, other places they really belonged. They didn't need this place like she did. Didn't need each otherlike she needed them.

...or so she thought.

* * *

><p>Zatanna was the first one to bring it up, one afternoon in mid-May when the seven of them had become little more than a collection of bodies strewn across the study lounge like so many living bean bags. Closest to the door was Dick, leaned up against the wall and muttering under his breath as his laptop quizzed him on Chinese vocabulary using a program he'd coded himself.<p>

("Too cool for flashcards?" Artemis had asked when he'd showed it off, and he'd just nodded unironically like it had been a real question.)

Sprawled out on his stomach a few feet away was Wally, whose subject of study was unknown to everyone but him; Artemis had heard him babble enough sciencespeak at her over lunches and late-night snacks and (regrettably) in bed that she'd forbidden him from ever discussing class material in her presence again, an ultimatum he'd thankfully obeyed. Across the room, in the kitchenette, Megan stood mixing something in a bowl while she listened to an Animal Biology lecture through her iPod headphones; the first batch of whatever it was she was baking was already filling the room with a mouth-watering aroma.

In the center of them all, Kaldur sat straight-backed at the table, each of his narrow subject-binders stacked carefully beside his textbooks, three spare pencils lined up at his left as he diligently copied out dates and titles from his Ancient Art textbook. Zee sat opposite him with her legs crossed, nose buried in _One Hundred Years of Solitude_.

In the corner, in his usual armchair, Conner was staring at a star chart, presumably studying for his Astronomy final, though judging from the way he kept flipping it around and back and scowling, it was a losing battle against his own failure to do any sort of studying (or homework) earlier in the semester. Copying off of Megan did have its drawbacks.

As for Artemis herself, she was seated on the floor amidst a clutter of study guides and textbooks and doodle-strewn notes, some of which were more snarky remarks on her professors than actual lecture content. Naturally, she was not studying any of it, but was instead lazily firing rubber bands over at Dick, who was dodging them without even looking away from his computer.

Just as she unwrapped her IR notecards to repurpose the rubber band holding them together, Zee looked up from her book and asked abruptly,

"So, what's everyone doing this summer?"

The others looked up from their various projects, glancing around at each other; Megan took out her earbuds.

"I'm going back to Gotham," said Dick after a brief pause, taking the initiative to answer first. "Probably do some apprenticeship stuff with Bruce, evade the media, do some personal coding projects, try and talk Barbara into transferring here. You know. The usual."

"That last part sounds good," Artemis put in hopefully. Come to think of it, from what she could tell from the brief interaction they'd had, Barbara would make a fabulous Bird of Prey...

"I am also returning home," said Kaldur, closing his notebook and rotating his chair so he could face more of the room. "Though I imagine I will have at least a few opportunities to come out and visit anyone who does not live prohibitively far away."

"Define 'prohibitively far away'," challenged Wally.

"West of the Mississippi."

"Damn."

"Wait, why damn? You're not going home too, are you?" Zatanna asked Wally. "I thought you said you had a summer research position."

"I do," said Wally uncomfortably. "But...I uh, I didn't mean on campus. It's with my uncle in the forensics lab in Central. My hours are pretty flexible but it's definitely not here. Sorry if I didn't make that clear."

Artemis felt her stomach go cold.

No, he hadn't made that clear. To be fair, they'd barely talked about it, but she'd definitely been under the impression that he was sticking around for the summer, at least for part of the time, and so to find out that not only would Dick and Kaldur be gone, so would _Wally..._

She swallowed hard, hoping the room's attention wouldn't turn to her next, which of course it did, but she was saved from responding when a noise from the entryway heralded Roy's entrance – he had stumbled and struck the wall.

"Whoa there," said Dick, who was closest, glancing up at the RA. "How's gravity treating you these days?"

"Gravity's an SOB," Roy grunted back, straightening himself out. He took a marginally steadier step into the room, looking around curiously. "What're y'all doin'?"

"Well we _were _studying..." Zee began.

"What's that?" Roy asked abruptly, pointing to Dick's laptop screen.

"It's um, a program I made to..."

"Awesome," said Roy, and promptly plopped down beside him, pulling Dick's computer into his own lap and clicking around randomly, or at least it sounded random (and Dick's half-amused, half-mortified expression supported that theory). A split second later he lost interest and abandoned that particularly project, scooching his way over to Wally's side and scooping up his Biochem textbook to squint at the text.

"This shit's _science,_" he declared, and promptly gave up on that too.

"Wow," Artemis remarked as Roy staggered upright, made for the table, leaned over it to pluck Zatanna's book out of her hands and knocked one of Kaldur's pencils askew in the process. "You _are _justdrunk, right?"

"Drunk on successsss," Roy grinned, handing Zee her book back. "Jus' turned in my last lib'ry book. Now they gotta let me grajoo...gradoo..."

"Graduate," Conner finished in a mutter, clearly embarrassed on behalf of the older student.

"Yus. That."

"I was not aware you had ever been in the library," remarked Kaldur dryly, re-rotating his pencil so that it was parallel to the others. "Or _a _library."

Roy glanced down at the gesture and promptly flicked the pencil back out of line, grinning impishly. Kaldur narrowed his eyes.

Sensing violence was imminent, Artemis cleared her throat, drawing the room's attention to herself.

"Yeah so, I was maybe planning on staying here for the summer but it sounds like everyone's leaving, so maybe I'll just go home."

"I might be here!" Roy interjected giddily as he wandered towards Megan to investigate what she was baking.

"Oh," said Artemis. "Delightful."

"I will too, actually," said Zatanna. "I'm just going back to New York to collect the rest of my things and then...well. Dr. Lance has set me up in an apartment near campus for the summer, since as soon as I clear out, the house is being sold. There's already a buyer and everything."

The room was silent for a moment, save the sound of Roy sucking cookie dough off his thumb; Kaldur touched Zatanna's arm gently from across the table and nothing more needed to be said.

"Me and Megan will be here too," Conner shrugged; Megan nodded in affirmation.

"Really?" said Artemis hopefully.

"I got a summer job with the planetarium," Megan explained. "During June and July the college hosts an astronomy camp for elementary school students, so I'm going to be a counselor for that. I get to live with them and teach them about the stars and the solar system."

"Children," muttered Artemis, shuddering.

"Sounds perfect for you," said Zatanna with a smile.

"You just crashing with her, then, Con?" Wally asked.

"Nope," said Conner, shaking his head. "I'm staying with Coach Kent. Gonna put in some serious training over the summer, maybe learn something about the team management side of things too."

"Wait, but I thought you two didn't get along," said Artemis, surprised.

Conner smiled, a rare and genuine deviation from his usual scowl.

"Nah, we're cool now," he said. "I'm actually kinda looking forward to it, to be honest. I've never...you know. Had somewhere to be in the summer."

Roy, his eyes brimming with happy tears, stumbled over to give the football player a hug, which Conner tolerated, patting the RA's arm awkwardly. Dick snickered.

"Well," said Artemis, looking around. "I guess I'll look for a job and a place to stay on campus for the summer, then."

"Do it," Wally urged. "Maybe me and Kaldur and fartface can coordinate a visit sometime, get the whole gang back together."

"Fartface?" Dick repeated incredulously.

"Yes, good," said Artemis to Wally, nodding. "Do that."

"Thy will be done, beautiful," said Wally with a grin, and it was.

* * *

><p>The night following the last day of finals, there was a full moon.<p>

All nine of them – Raquel had made the trek from north campus – were up on the roof, enjoying the last night they would ever spend as true peers. After all, tomorrow was graduation, when one of their rank would move on an join the real world. They would see each other again, but it would never be the same as that first magical year. Not quite.

The gang was unusually subdued as they chatted quietly under the stars. The night had turned warm and mild, a gentle breeze rustling the leaves on the trees around them; Artemis sat with a cup of red wine cradled in her lap, a parting gift from Roy, who was in fact mostly sober at that moment, seated on the end of the couch with one arm slung casually around Kaldur's shoulder. For perhaps the first time since Artemis had met him, Kaldur himself looked honestly relaxed.

"We should spiff this place up next year," said Dick, looking around the rooftop as he set his cup down. "Now that we know we're coming back."

Room draw had been a success. They were due to move back into the Cave next September.

"I dunno, I kinda like it the way it is," Raquel shrugged. "It's...homey."

Zatanna reached for one of the wine bottles in the center of their circle, pouring just a little more into her glass; Conner held his out and she topped it off obligingly.

"We could build a floodlight," Dick suggested jokingly. "A big beacon we can shine up into the sky, so Roy can always find his way home."

"We could call it the Hat-Signal," Wally chimed in.

"Hilarious," Roy deadpanned, rolling his eyes as the others chuckled, but no one missed the affection in his voice.

"Any idea yet where you'll be next year?" Megan asked him. She was looking unacceptably adorable in one of Conner's big football sweatshirts.

Artemis inwardly braced herself – every time she'd seen Roy asked this question thus far, it had been met with varying degrees of verbal and physical violence. But to her surprise, the RA just shrugged, pausing a moment before answering.

"Here and there," he said finally, looking up at the sky. "Gonna go look for myself or whatever, I guess."

Conner shifted in his chair, frowning slightly.

"Well when you find yourself...come back and introduce us, all right?" he said, gruffness masking the obvious sentiment in his words.

"Deal," said Roy with a wry smile. He settled back against the back of the couch.

They were all silent for a moment, letting the sounds of the surrounding campus fill their ears – someone's faint music from a few floors down, muffled conversations from the quad, the hum of a passing car on the avenue.

"You know, I'm really going to miss this," said Zatanna softly, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Conner grunted his agreement. Artemis bit her lip. Wally, noticing the slight change in her posture, nudged his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Hey," said Dick quietly, laying a hand on Zee's back and smiling, though Artemis could spot the sadness in his own eyes. "We have another three years to rock this place."

"And after that, a whole lifetime," Megan added.

God, Artemis was _not _ready to think about that just yet.

"Megan's right," said Wally firmly. "Maybe I'm only speaking for myself, but...I've never had friends like you guys before. And I don't plan on leaving you all alone just because we're not in the same physical space anymore. So don't get your hopes up."

"You better not," Artemis murmured, trying not to cry.

"I feel the same," Kaldur put in, looking around at them all. "What we have forged here together, it is..."

...he hesitated.

"Powerful," Dick supplied knowingly, and the older boy nodded.

"Yes. And not easily forgotten."

Raquel smiled her agreement and raised her cup towards the center of their gathering.

"To us," she proposed.

"To us," eight voices echoed, eight glasses rising to complete the circle.

They drank, and the night carried on.

* * *

><p>In time, the gang dispersed, giving in to the late hour and the duties of the next day. As Megan and Kaldur collected glasses to be washed, Conner and Roy picked up the empties, and they all headed downstairs to get ready for bed.<p>

"Wanna sleep outside tonight?" Wally asked Artemis as they brushed their teeth side by side, he in his pajamas, she in shorts and one of his overlarge t-shirts, the yellow one with the red lightning bolt on it.

"Sure," she replied. "Should I ask Dick and Zee too?"

(The other five had historically declined. Besides, over the course of the year the four of them – Dick, Wally, Artie and Zee – had become their own little subgroup anyhow. It got hard to count the number of nights all four of them had ended up sprawled across Dick and Wally's joint beds, a comfortable pile of bodies and easy friendship. Awkwardness just didn't enter into it.)

Wally smiled in response to the question, to which Artemis nodded slipped out of the bathroom to track down the others, toothbrush held between her teeth.

She found them in Dick and Wally's room, reminiscing over a Facebook album from earlier in the year. They consented to sleeping out on the roof, and as she left them to finish their nostalgia adventure and collect their sleeping bags, she was met with a sight she'd never actually seen: Roy and Kaldur, paused in the RA's open doorway, engaged in a slow, chaste kiss.

Artemis's first thought was that it was _weird – _Roy being affectionate? – but she immediately recanted. It wasn't weird that it was happening, just weird that she was seeing it. Like seeing your parents kiss, or something. Ducking her head, she tried to cross the hallway back to the bathroom as though nothing had happened, but a noise at her back signaled her failure.

"I saw nothing," she announced quickly, raising her hands in self-defense.

"Damn right you did," came Roy's reply. There was a soft, self-conscious laugh from Kaldur, then the click of a door shutting.

"Good night to you, too," Artemis murmured, slipping back into the bathroom to finish brushing her teeth.

Wally fetched their sleeping bags, they bid their good-nights to Conner and Megan, and together they headed up the stairwell to the Summit. Dick and Zee were already there, the latter with her head cushioned on the former's outstretched arm.

"Hey," Wally greeted, tossing out his sleeping bag beside Dick's and fluffing up his pillow before he laid down. "You already set an alarm, or should I?"

"I got it," Dick said, reaching for his phone. "Ceremony's at ten. Nine o'clock early enough for y'all to get beautiful?"

"Please," Zatanna scoffed playfully. "I wake up beautiful."

"True," conceded Dick and Artemis as one.

Artemis smiled and spread her sleeping bag on the other side of Wally's, stretching out beside him on the rooftop. She didn't protest when he slipped one long arm under her shoulders, nor did she object when he used it to pull her a little closer, snuggling up against her side. In the light of the full moon she could count every freckle on his nose and cheeks.

"You've been quiet all evening," he murmured in her ear, brushing some of her hair out of her face. "You okay?"

"Fine," she muttered back, attempting a smile. On their other side, Zee giggled at a joke Dick had apparently made. "Just...thinking about the future, I guess."

"What about it?"

She hesitated, averting her eyes away from his, but he squeezed her arm gently.

"Come on, babe, talk to me."

"I haven't had a lot of good things in my life," she confessed quietly. "At least...not ones that last very long. I guess I'm afraid that...all of this is going to turn out to be too good to be true."

"'This?'" Wally questioned curiously.

"These people," said Artemis. "This life. You."

Wally let out an unexpected laugh.

"You think I'm just going to up and disappear on you?" he asked, eyes crinkling in amusement. _Damn those laugh lines._ "You think I'd vanish into thin air, just like that?"

She frowned.

"Wally, I – "

" – Artemis," he interrupted, planting the tip of one finger against her lips, his other arm still holding her secure. "Look at me."

She did, reluctantly lifting her eyes to meet his. He lowered his hand to grasp hers, fingers sliding between her own and squeezing lightly.

"I'm telling you now," he said seriously, lifting their joint hands into the space between their chests. "Heisenberg called it – life is unpredictable. But the one thing I _know _I know is that your coming here wasn't a mistake. These friends we've made, they aren't mistakes either. You're supposed to be a part of all this, just the same as me or Dick or Megan or Kaldur or hell, even Roy. We all are. And even if we go away for a little while, we're not ever leaving for good, okay? We will _always_ find a way back to each other. I swear to you. Always."

Artemis felt a lump rise in her throat as he spoke, threatening her ability to speak.

"Promise?" she asked, ducking her head.

Wally smiled, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

"Promise."

Closing her eyes, Artemis inched closer, nuzzling her nose against his and laying a feathery kiss against his lips.

"Good night, Wally," she whispered, letting her head droop into the pillow below it.

Beside her, he settled down onto his own pillow, still holding her close.

"Good night, Art."

She could feel the words hum in his chest, and let that gentle vibration lull her to sleep.

* * *

><p>Sunlight woke them the next morning before Dick's alarm had a chance, heralding the arrival of an absolutely dazzling day.<p>

"Morning, gorgeous," said Wally's voice affectionately, and Artemis opened her eyes to give him a face only to find he was actually talking to Dick, who was looking groggy and dishelmed and not particularly amused.

The morning passed in a haze, mostly. The four of them joined their friends downstairs for Megan's last home-cooked breakfast of the semester, then showered and spiffed up for the commencement ceremony with whatever clothes they hadn't already packed. As it had been at the beginning of the year, so it was at the end – boxes stacked upon boxes lining the hallway, suitcases stuffed to bursting, a general state of disarray that no one seemed to mind.

At a quarter to ten they left Mountain Hall and made for the quad, where an endless sea of folding chairs and temporary bleachers had been erected, all facing the stage where the soon-to-be graduates were to walk. Parents, professors and dazed-looking seniors milled about, the sound of their voices forming one low hum of excitement that Artemis couldn't help but feel.

"Today is the day," Kaldur murmured.

No one knew exactly what he meant, but everyone agreed.

From their seats near the back of the bleachers, it was tough to see the details of what was going on, but when Roy's named was called, they stood and screamed as if their lives depended on it (which, to be fair, they might have; Roy was always threatening to off them over something or another). Yes, it was a long time to wait just to see one person cross the stage, but no one complained.

As he left the stage, diploma in hand, Artemis chanced a glance over at Kaldur, who sat beside her, expression unreadable.

"You gonna be okay?" she asked, touching his arm.

He looked at her.

"Certainly," he replied evenly, looking a little surprised by the question. "I am quite all right, I assure you. If anything, I am relieved."

"Relieved?" Artemis repeated confusedly. Hadn't he and Roy been just fine only twelve hours prior?

Kaldur arched an eyebrow, turning his eyes back to the stage.

"If you were at all familiar with Roy's academic record, you would be too," he remarked, and that was that.

* * *

><p>At the end of the ceremony came a particularly stirring moment for their gang. Artemis had seen her RA throw so many hats, in so many varied and colorful situations, but never before had she seen two thousand black-robed students follow suit and hurl their headpieces to the sky right along with him. As the air filled with mortarboards and the excited cheers of all those gathered, Commencement came to a close, and the gang took leave of the bleachers.<p>

* * *

><p>Artemis stood at the foot of Mountain Hall, in the patch of grass where she'd first stood some nine months before, suitcase in hand.<p>

The dorm at her back was empty, but it didn't matter. After all, the Cave was just a place. All the things that really mattered she could carry with her easily.

_The bright ring of Dick's laugh, echoing through the hallway. All his birdbrained schemes; the way the rest of them always went along anyway._

_Kaldur's imperturbable patience. The soothing timbre of his voice, the wisdom of his counsel._

_Raquel's brash courage. Bruised knees._

_The sound of Megan's even breathing across the room at night. Persistent words of encouragement in the morning._

_Conner's steady gaze, his steadier grip._

_Roy's obstinacy. The soft, soft heart that lay beneath it._

_Zee's knowing smile. The faint smell of her perfume, lingering in Artemis's room._

_Warm breath on the back of her neck. Wally's banter, his dorky pick-up lines, his freckles, his arms around her whenever she needed them most. _

Time would change them. Maybe it would even divide them, physically. But Artemis felt confident now, even with Wally back in Central, with Kaldur back in Atlanta, with Dick back in Gotham and Roy somewhere out on the road: they would find each other again and again, as long as there was a world to share. And there would _always _be a world to share.

With a sigh and a smile, Artemis shouldered her bag, took a breath, and stepped off the curb.

Summer was waiting, and so were her friends.


End file.
